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What to know about Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed in Iran [1]

['Frances Vinall']

Date: 2024-07-31

He was Hamas’s political leader

Haniyeh led Hamas’s 15-member political bureau since 2017, the pinnacle of his long career with the group, which was founded in 1987. He was first appointed assistant to Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 1997.

Yehiya Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza, and its military chief, Mohammed Deif — who was targeted in an Israeli strike earlier this month — prefer to stay in the shadows. Haniyeh, who was considered one of Hamas’s more politically pragmatic leaders, has in recent years been the public face of the group, traveling to meet with foreign leaders. He had lived in Qatar since 2020, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Yassin and Haniyeh were both injured in an Israeli strike on Gaza City in 2003. The following year, Israel killed Yassin and Hamas’s next leader in quick succession, leaving Haniyeh to join a new collective leadership.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, has been killed in Iran, Hamas announced July 31, describing the death as an assassination. (Video: Julie Yoon/The Washington Post)

While Hamas historically boycotted elections, Haniyeh supported the party’s participation in the 2006 legislative elections. Hamas, led by Haniyeh, went on to win the elections amid widespread frustration with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by rival party Fatah.

Haniyeh served as Palestinian Authority prime minister in a brief unity government that followed; however, in 2007, Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority in a short civil war and seized control of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority maintains control of parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Neither group has held democratic elections in the years since.

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Haniyeh led Hamas within Gaza until 2017, when he was promoted to political leader of the larger organization (which has branches for Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and among Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons). He was succeeded in his previous role by Sinwar.

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[1] Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/07/31/who-is-hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-killed/

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