Osama Mazini

Osama Mazini (أسامة مزيني; 1966 – 16 October 2023) was a Palestinian senior political leader of the Palestinian Islamist political and militant group Hamas.

Mazini was in charge of negotiation affairs dealing with captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

In a 2006 sermon, he criticized Pope Benedict XVI over the latter's remarks on Islam, saying that the pontiff was "ignorant and stupid", "criminal and arrogant", and "a cruel man, spilling blood, who strove to kill".

During Israel's airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza War in December 2008, Mazini warned Israel about sending in ground forces, stating "the people of Gaza are waiting to see the Zionist enemy in Gaza to tear them into pieces of flesh."

Mazini was killed in an airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on 16 October 2023, during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. He was 57.