It is unknown when Seyam joined Hamas, but he was one of the earliest members. Seyam held a job as a teacher at various
United Nations-run schools until 2003. In 1992, he was expelled from the
Palestinian territories by
Israel to
southern Lebanon and upon his return in 1995, Seyam was arrested by the
Preventive Security Service (PSS) dominated by
Fatah. He had evaded at least one attempt by the IDF to kill him in late 2004. Seyam became one of the members of the Hamas "collective leadership" in Gaza after the 2004 killings of founders
Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. Seyam was close to Yassin and Hamas secretary-general
Khaled Mashal, that latter whom he accompanied on a diplomatic visit to
Moscow, Russia. After the parliamentary elections in 2006, Seyam was appointed
Interior Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, forming the
Palestinian government of March 2006. It also put him in charge of 13,000 police and security forces. He represented the Gaza electoral district of the
Palestinian Legislative Council as a Hamas member after being elected with the most votes for any single candidate. In June 2007, he created the Executive Force, a paramilitary organization to rival
Mohammed Dahlan's PSS. It played a key role in the
takeover of Gaza and was praised by many Gazans for bringing order to Gaza, but accused of torture by others. ==Personal life==