Jibril Jeha

Dr Jibril Abu Hanna Latif Jeha (الدكتور جبريل أبو حنا لطيف جحا; b. 26 April 1966) is a Lebanese politician and surgeon who has served since 1 February 2024 as Prime Minister of the Arab Union, succeeding Prime Minister Yahya Abdalati (2016–2024). Previously, Jeha served as Minister of Health from 2017 to 2024, and prior to that as Chairman of the National Health Authority (NHA) from 2014 to 2017. Before entering politics, he served for nearly ten years as chief ER (emergency room) surgeon at Waqf Hospital in Nasser City from mid-2004 to early 2014.

Jeha has been a member of the Lebanese Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party since 1988, having served as Deputy Regional Secretary of the Regional Command from 1991 to 2000. Jeha attended Gamal Abdel Nasser University from 1985 to 1989 where he earned a bachelor's degree in health sciences, after which he attended Izzeddin Abuelaish Medical School in Nablus from 1990 to 1994. He then became a resident in surgery at Qiyamat al-Baraka Hospital in Jaffa from 1994 to 1999, where he proved himself a highly capable, clear-headed, and even at times positively innovative surgeon; following the completion of his residency, he would remain at Qiyamat al-Baraka Hospital as a junior ER surgeon until 2002. From late 2002 to late 2003, Jeha took an approximately year-long sabbatical, during which time he was offered a position as chief ER surgeon at Waqf Hospital in December 2003, which he accepted and thereafter began in late January 2004.

Jeha married Maryam Sabra Makhlouf in 1988, with whom he has three children: Jamal (b. 1990), Shirin (b. 1996) and Sadia (b. 1999). Jeha and his family are Shia Muslims of the Isma'ili sect. The family resides in the city of Jamousiya, Syria, located northeast of Nasser City, capital of the Arab Union, directly across the New Union Canal; it forms a central part of the Capital metropolitan community, the metropolitan area centred on Nasser City.