Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas top leader assassinated in Iran?

Haniyeh, according to a report in news agency Reuters, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy as war raged in Gaza, where an Israeli strike had killed three of his sons. Soon after Haniyeh’s assassination, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned his killing, calling it a “cowardly act and dangerous development.”

Who was Ismail Haniyeh?

Born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp north of Gaza City, to Palestinian parents, Ismail Haniyeh rose to power under the mentorship of the spiritual leader and a founder of Hamas, Sheik Yassin, as his personal secretary, the New York Times reported.

His parents had been displaced from their home in what is now Israel, in Ashkelon, in the year 1948. He studied at schools run by the main United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, and went on to study Arabic literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, the report stated, where he emerged as a student activist.

Haniyeh used to run the militant group Hamas’ political operations from exile in Qatar, according to the New York Times. He was named the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2006, when he briefly served as the prime minister of a Palestinian unity government that got dissolved later.

Next, in 2017, he was named the leader of Hamas’ political bureau, following which he continued to lead the militant group while moving between Qatar and Turkey. His death comes at a time when he was actively engaged as a negotiator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

Sons, family members killed in Israeli strike

Three of Haniyeh’s 13 sons, namely, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad, were killed on April 10 when an Israeli air strike struck their car, Hamas had said. Haniyeh also lost four of his grandchildren, three girls and a boy, in the attack, news agency Reuters reported, quoting Hamas.

The leader had then denied Israeli assertions that his sons were fighters for the group, saying that “the interests of the Palestinian people are placed ahead of everything” when asked if their killing would impact diplomatic talks.

In June this year, moreover, Hamas stated that Haniyeh’s sister and her family were also killed in a strike by the Israeli military on the Haniyeh family home in Gaza.

Journey with Hamas

Haniyeh joined Hamas when it was created in the First Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 1987. He was arrested and briefly deported, news agency Reuters reported. He was a true advocate of Hamas entering the political arena.

In 1994, he said that forming a political party “would enable Hamas to deal with emerging developments”.

Further in 2012, when asked by Reuters reporters if Hamas had abandoned the armed struggle against Israel in Gaza, Haniyeh replied “of course not” and said resistance would continue “in all forms – popular resistance, political, diplomatic and military resistance”.