ReutersHaniyeh at the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Pezeshkian, July 30.
NOS News•today, 08:25•Adjusted today, 08:52
The supreme leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has been killed in the Iranian capital Tehran. This political leader of Hamas is held responsible by Israel for the major attack on October 7. He played a prominent role in the militant movement for years.
Ismail Haniyeh becomes a household name in 2006 when he leads the Hamas movement to an election victory over the much better-known Fatah party, which had held a majority in the Palestinian Authority parliament for more than a decade.
But his background gives little reason to expect that he would end up in that position. He was born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. His parents came from the now Israeli city of Ashkelon. They fled in 1948, after the founding of the state of Israel. In total, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled.
At the age of 21, he joined an Islamic student movement that would merge with Hamas. He graduated in 1987, the year of the first intifada – the uprising against the Israeli occupation – and the founding of Hamas.
Forbidden movement
Hamas quickly came under the scrutiny of Israeli intelligence services. In 1988, Israel arrested Haniyeh, along with many other members of the militant movement, whose political ideology is based on Sharia, Islamic law. In the late 1980s, he was put behind bars twice for membership in the movement, which is banned by Israel.
After his release, Haniyeh was deported to Lebanon along with other prominent Hamas members. However, he soon returned and rose to a leading position within the movement during the Second Intifada in 2001.
Two years later he escapes death in a targeted Israeli rocket attack in the office of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, of which Haniyeh is now head. Through many media appearances he gains a moderate reputation, but Hamas remains controversial: on the one hand a popular movement that at that time does a lot of charity in the Gaza Strip, on the other hand a terrorist group that does not shy away from bloody suicide attacks.
This is an edit of a previously published article.
Haniyeh becomes prime minister of the Palestinian Authority after the election victory in 2006, but President Abbas dismisses him when Hamas seizes power in Gaza. He remains the de facto leader of the Gaza Strip.
In 2017, he was elected head of Hamas’ political bureau and moved to Qatar, where more Hamas leaders live. In 2021, he became re-electedIn 2018, Washington placed him on the terrorist list.
In recent years, Haniyeh has been heavily criticized for his perceived prosperity, which is said to be in stark contrast to the poverty that has prevailed in Gaza for years.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Haniyeh had a personal fortune of billions dollar, but independent experts say there is no evidence for this.
The Washington Post did write that the Hamas leader had access to an extensive financial network. The newspaper cites sources who say that Hamas earns hundreds of millions of dollars from taxes on imported goods to Gaza, smuggling activities and financial support from Iran.
It fits the image of the Hamas regime, which oppresses the population in Gaza with an iron fist and is guilty of corruption on a large scale.
Remarkable reaction to death of sons
In April, Haniyeh’s sons were killed by Israel in an airstrike, prompting a remarkable response.
“The blood of my children is not more valuable than the blood of the children of the Palestinian people,” he told Al Jazeera after learning that his sons and several grandchildren had been killed. “All the martyrs of Palestine are my children.”
In the video below, bystanders look at the car in which Haniyeh’s three sons and four grandchildren were killed:
Sons of Hamas leader Haniyeh killed in Israeli attack
Despite the controversies, Haniyeh remained a resistance hero for many Palestinians. His credibility was only strengthened for them by the Israeli confirmation that the attack on his sons was targeted. But it was his reaction to that great personal loss that will be remembered by Palestinians for a long time.
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