'Influential' Palestinian Rebel Killed Fighting for Russia in Ukraine

Rami al-Farra, a member of one of the most influential clans in the Gaza Strip, was reportedly killed while fighting for Russia in Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty spoke to al-Farra's father, Haytham al-Farra, who said that his son died on August 5 while fighting in Ukraine, although Palestine news outlets reported he had been killed in Russia. According to the news outlet, it marks the first known case of the death of a Palestinian in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Al-Farra was engaged in "guarding the military who cleared mines" somewhere near the industrial city of Bakhmut or in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, and died on August 5 "saving his wounded friends," his father said.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that al-Farra, born in Russia in 1994 to a Russian mother and a Palestinian father, spent many years with his family in the Gaza Strip as a child, and returned to the Russian Federation as a teenager, fleeing Gaza following the Hamas takeover in 2007. He lived in the town of Kurganinsk in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, where he will soon be buried with military honors.

Al-Farra's father said that his son, who had both Russian citizenship and a Palestinian passport, was not mobilized to fight in Ukraine, but voluntarily signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.

He said the last photos he received from his son were taken in Ukraine.

"He died a martyr for the great Russia," al-Farra's father told the news outlet, calling his son a hero. He said that Ukrainian shelling which caused his son's death was "a cowardly act," because he "did not fight, but was engaged in demining."

Previous media reports offered conflicting details on al-Farra's death.

Palestinian news outlet Alam24 reported that al-Farra died "in Russia during a missile attack" while Arab newspaper Al-Hayat said he was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade explosion in Moscow.

Evgeny Finkel, editor-in-chief of the Russian-language Israeli publication Newsru.co.il, told Radio Liberty that the al-Farra family clan is "one of the most influential in the south of the Gaza Strip."

A website belonging to the al-Farra clan published news of his death on August 10: "Young Rami Haitham al-Farra has passed away."

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