Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala him to run as their presidential candidate, but he refused due to their different ideological backgrounds. Abu Ghazala died on 6 September 2008 at El-Galla Military Hospital in Cairo at the age of 78, from throat cancer. Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala Mohamed Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala (1930–2008) (محمد عبد الحليم أبو غزاله) was Defense Minister of Egypt from 1981 to 1989. Abu Ghazala was seated next to Anwar Sadat when the president was assassinated. He was born in Zuhur Al Omara Village, Dilingat, Behera governorate, in February 1930. His family descended from "Awlad Aly" tribe. After completing his secondary education,
Anwar Sadat the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing—he expected—a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country". In February 1981, Egyptian authorities were alerted to El-Jihad's plan by the arrest of an operative carrying crucial information. In September, Sadat ordered a highly unpopular roundup of more than 1,500 people, including many Jihad members, but also the Coptic Pope and other Coptic clergy, intellectuals and activists of all ideological stripes. All non-government press was banned as well. The round up missed a Jihad cell in