High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nizar Rayan (March 6, 1959 January 1, 2009) was a top Hamas leader who served as a liaison between the Palestinian organization's political leadership and its military wing. Also a professor of Islamic law, he came to be considered a top clerical authority within Hamas after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Rayan was a strong advocate between 1994 and 2004 or 2005 of suicide attacks on Israel, and his son killed himself on one such mission. Rayan and most of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza War.Rayan was born in Jabalia, Gaza Strip on March 6, 1959. In 1982, he received a BA in Religious Principles from the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. While there he was influenced by Wahhabism. He then attended the University of Jordan in Amman and in 1990 received a masters degree with honors.