The head of Hamas’s political wing, Ismail Haniyawho was killed today in a strike in Tehran, will be buried on Friday in Doha, Qatar, the day after his funeral will be held in the Iranian capital, the Palestinian Islamist movement announced today.
The funeral ceremony will be held tomorrow, Thursday, in Tehran and his body will be transferred to Doha, where the “martyr” will be buried on Friday in the presence of representatives of Palestinian movements as well as Arab and Muslim leaders, Hamas clarified in a statement.
At the same time, behind-the-scenes discussions for the next day have already begun and three persons they seem to be the favorites for Hania’s position.
Yahya Sinuar
He is the leader of Hamas in Gaza, known to Israelis as the “Slaughterer of Khan Younis”, his hometown in southern Gaza. He had previously undertaken counterintelligence work for Hamas, targeting spies and informants within the group.
According to the Washington Post he is believed to be one of the few Hamas leaders who planned the October 7 attack on Israel and is believed to be hiding in or around Khan Younis in tunnels, said Jonathan Lord, senior associate and director of the security program. in the Middle East at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.
Sinuar spent two decades in an Israeli prison for orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers. He speaks fluent Hebrew and is considered to have a deep understanding of Israel.
He was released in 2011 as part of a major prisoner swap involving the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Khaled Masal
O Khaled Masal he is in charge of the organization’s diaspora office, cultivating support for Hamas abroad, including among Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. He had led Hamas in the past but always had difficult relations with Iran.
After the Oct. 7 attack and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Mashal called for protests in Muslim nations, saying in a recorded statement: “This is a moment of truth and the border is near you – you all know your responsibility.” .
Mashal survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997. His assassination attempt in the Jordanian capital, Amman, caused tremors in Jordan’s relations with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also prime minister in 1997, ordered the poisoning, US and Israeli officials said at the time. Mashal survived after officials from the United States and Jordan demanded that Israel give him the antidote.
He has said the assassination attempt was a pivotal moment in his life, describing it as his second birth, according to the BBC.
Zaher Jabarin
Another possible candidate is Zaher Jabarin, who is responsible for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. He could play a key role in ongoing prisoner exchange negotiations with Israel. The American newspaper Wall Street Journal reported in January 2024 that the 55-year-old militant manages Hamas’s financial relations with its main benefactor, Iran, and handles the way Tehran transfers cash to the Gaza Strip, according to with what American and Israeli officials claim.
Jabarin oversees a portfolio of companies that generate annual revenue for Hamas and runs a network of private donors and businessmen who invest in the Islamist group.
Who was Ismail Haniya?
Haniya attracted the international spotlight in 2006 when he became prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, following his movement’s surprise election victory.
He has long advocated reconciling the armed struggle with the political struggle in his organization and is said to have cultivated good relations with the leaders of several other Palestinian movements.
The 62-year-old lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar and Turkey.
The son of a refugee family from the town called Ashkelon in Arabic (Ashkelon in Hebrew), a few kilometers north of the Gaza Strip, he began his political activism in the Muslim Brotherhood student organization at the Islamic University of Gaza, where Hamas was born. He was a member of the Islamic University student union in 1983 and 1984.
Three years later, he joined Hamas at its founding as the first Intifada broke out, the Palestinian uprising that would last until 1993. During this period, Ismail Haniya was repeatedly imprisoned by Israeli authorities and displaced for six months in southern Lebanon.
He attracted international attention in 2006 when he became prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, following the Islamist movement’s surprise victory in parliamentary elections.
After taking over as head of a unity government, he pledged to work towards the establishment of a Palestinian state “in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital”, choosing to go against the grain, as Hamas in its official discourse at the time did not recognize those borders .
But it was during his days that, in 2007, the mini-civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority broke out. The Palestinian Islamist movement seized power in the Gaza Strip after deadly hostilities. The conflict continues to this day fueling the conflict between Hamas and Fatah.
His cohabitation with Fatah, the faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, was short-lived. Hamas expelled it from the enclave by force in 2007, two years after Israel announced it was unilaterally withdrawing from the small area it had occupied for decades.
Ismail Haniya was elected head of Hamas’ politburo in 2017, succeeding Khaled Meshaal, also in exile in Qatar.
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