Zuhayr Muḥsin

Zuhayr Muḥsin (born 1936, Ṭulkarm, Palestine [West Bank]—died July 26, 1979, Nice, France) was a Palestinian nationalist who was a leader of the pro-Syrian guerrilla organization al-Ṣāʿiqah and head of the Military Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

A long-standing member of the Baʿth Party and a friend of Syrian leader Ḥāfiẓ al-Assad, Muḥsin worked as a teacher in Jordan and the Persian Gulf states before joining the Palestinian movement. He was responsible for reorganizing al-Ṣāʿiqah and bringing it under Assad’s control in 1971, at which time he became head of the organization. Large elements of the group were deployed in Lebanon, and in 1976 the organization welcomed the Syrian invasion of Lebanon and sided with Syria against other Palestinian guerrillas. Muḥsin was briefly suspended from the PLO. He was killed while on holiday in southern France; some believe Israeli agents were responsible for his death.