Abdullah Galip Bergusi (b. 1972, Kuwait) is a former commander of the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in the West Bank, as well as an electronic engineer and author. He is known for receiving the longest prison sentence in Israeli judicial history.

Born in Kuwait to a family originally from the village of Kobar near Ramallah, he migrated with his family to Jordan after the 1990 Gulf War. He traveled to South Korea to pursue higher education and studied electronic engineering. The technical knowledge he acquired during his studies in South Korea, particularly regarding explosives and electronic systems, later earned him the nickname “The Engineer” (Al-Muhandis) in resistance circles. He returned to the West Bank and settled there at the end of the 1990s.

During the Second Intifada, which began in 2000, he assumed strategic responsibilities within the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades. Israeli intelligence identified him as the technical planner and explosives expert behind numerous attacks including the Sbarro Restaurant bombing the Moment Café attack and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem bombing.

Bergusi was arrested on 5 March 2003 in Ramallah during a raid by Israeli special forces as he was leaving a hospital. Following his arrest he underwent an intense interrogation lasting approximately six months. Details of his detention—including confinement in small cells without sunlight sleep deprivation and various physical and psychological interrogation methods—are documented in his own memoirs and in human rights reports.

The following statement used by Israeli intelligence agencies to describe Bergusi’s threat level has entered the historical record::

“Even if we had to relocate Israel elsewhere we would never leave Abdullah Galip Bergusi behind; we would take him with us.”^【1】

In 2004, at an Israeli military court under Israel’s legal system he was found responsible for attacks that resulted in the deaths of 66 people and injuries to hundreds more. He was sentenced to a total of 67 life terms and an additional 5200 years in prison. This sentence remains the highest ever imposed on a single individual under Israeli law.

Spending the majority of his sentence in solitary confinement Bergusi has authored numerous books with autobiographical and political themes. His literary output centers on the series The Engineer on the Path which he intended as a guide for those who have lost their way.

• The Engineer on the Path (Mühendisü’l-Ala’t-Tarik)
• The Prince of the Shadow (Emiruz-Zıll)
• The Path of the Free
• The Guardians of Al-Aqsa Mosque