The Shin Bet said in response: “We do not comment on the service chief’s schedule.”
Dahlan, 64, was among the founders of Fatah’s youth movement. In 1987, he was arrested over his role in the first intifada and deported to Jordan. In 1994, with the advancement of the Oslo Accords, he returned to Gaza and was later appointed head of the Preventive Security Service. He resigned from the post in 2002 and was later appointed, among other roles, interior minister and civil affairs minister, handling the disengagement portfolio.
During the second intifada, intelligence officials linked Dahlan to several terror attacks in Gaza, including the 2000 attack on a children’s bus in which two residents of Kfar Darom were murdered.
When Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Dahlan and his forces were defeated, and he left Gaza with many of his supporters. In 2011, Dahlan was expelled from Fatah following claims that he had worked with a group of senior organization officials to oust Abbas. He went into exile in the UAE, where he became close to Abu Dhabi ruler and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, eventually becoming his adviser.
Dahlan has since amassed tens of millions of dollars from brokering deals, at least some of which, according to past claims, involved Israeli security officials. In January 2024, he criticized Hamas’ October 7 terror attack, saying it had brought total destruction to the Strip.
“It may lead to hope for coexistence between the two peoples or open the gate to a new hell and a spiral of violence and revenge,” he said at the time, urging Israel to extend a hand for peace rather than revenge.
The Wall Street Journal described him then as a “rare” Palestinian leader who operates independently of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority — in a way that could theoretically allow Israel to cooperate with him. According to the 2024 report, in the first months after the war began, Dahlan shuttled between the UAE and Egypt, advising the leaders of both countries.