Zakaria Zubeidi (زكريا الزبيدي), born in 1976 in Jenin refugee camp, has been a member of Fatah since 1989. He was a senior commander in Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades during the second intifada and reportedly a member of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. He was first elected to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council in 2009.

In 2007, Zubeidi laid down his weapons as part a general amnesty agreement negotiated between Israel and the PA to end the second intifada and demobilise Palestinian armed groups. Israel rescinded his amnesty in 2011, subsequently accusing him of resuming armed attacks.

Zubeidi has been arrested multiple times by Israel, most recently in 2019. Israel accused him of orchestrating the 2002 Beit She’an attack – targeting the Likud party headquarters – which killed 6 Israeli civilians.

In 2021, he was involved in a high-profile, and short lived, tunnel escape from Israel’s Gilboa prison. He was eventually released from prison in January 2025 as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas.

Zubeidi studied theatre and acting in the late eighties under Arna Mer Khamis – a prominent Israeli Jewish political and human rights activist. In 2006, he helped establish the Jenin Freedom Theatre.