Ali Hassan Abu Kamal was born on September 19, 1927, in Jaffa, then part of Mandatory Palestine. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, his family relocated to Gaza. He became a respected English teacher, working at both high school and university levels, and also served as a translator and tutor. By the mid-1990s, he was earning approximately $3,000 a month and lived comfortably with his wife and six children in Gaza.

In December 1996, seeking better opportunities, Abu Kamal traveled to the United States on a legal nonimmigrant visa. He arrived in New York City on December 24, 1996, and shortly thereafter established temporary residence in Florida. On January 30, 1997, he obtained a Florida state identification card and purchased a .380-caliber Beretta 84 handgun. ​

On February 23, 1997, at approximately 5:00 p.m., Abu Kamal visited the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City. Armed with the recently acquired handgun, he opened fire on the crowd, killing 27-year-old Danish musician Christoffer Burmeister and wounding six others. He then turned the weapon on himself, inflicting a fatal gunshot wound to the head. ​

Initially, authorities and family members suggested that the motive behind the shooting was personal distress, possibly linked to financial losses. However, a letter found on Abu Kamal revealed political motivations, expressing anger towards the United States, the United Kingdom, and France for their support of Israel. In 2007, his daughter disclosed that the earlier narrative was a cover story and confirmed that her father's actions were driven by political motives related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.