Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh has Been Assassinated in Iran

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been reported killed in Tehran. His death was confirmed by both Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hamas on Wednesday. The group released a statement mourning Haniyeh's death, attributing it to what they described as a "treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran."

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination, but suspicion immediately turned to Israel, which had previously vowed to target Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders in retaliation for the group's attacks on October 7, as reported by the Associated Press.

Haniyeh was in Tehran as a guest at the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, held in the Iranian capital on Tuesday evening. The ceremony was also attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemned the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday, describing it as a "cowardly act" and calling on Palestinians to stay united against Israel.

In a statement from his office, Abbas said, "President Mahmud Abbas of the State of Palestine strongly condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, considering it a cowardly act and a dangerous escalation." He urged Palestinians and their factions to remain united, patient, and resilient in the face of Israeli occupation.

Additionally, a senior Hamas official stated on Wednesday that the killing of Haniyeh "will not go unanswered." Musa Abu Marzuk, a member of the Hamas political bureau, declared, "The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and will not go unanswered."

Who is Ismail Haniyeh?

Ismail Haniyeh was born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp, located north of Gaza City. According to the New York Times, his parents were Palestinians who were displaced from their home in Ashkelon, now part of Israel, during the events of 1948.

He completed his education at schools operated by UNRWA, the main United Nations agency for Palestinians, and pursued higher studies in Arabic literature at the Islamic University of Gaza.

Haniyeh was arrested multiple times by the Israeli military and served several sentences in Israeli prisons during the 1980s and 1990s. His rise to power in Gaza was supported by his mentor, Sheik Yassin, a founding member of Hamas.

According to the New York Times, Haniyeh served as Yassin’s personal secretary, and the two survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2003. Yassin was killed by the Israeli military the following year.

In 2006, Haniyeh was appointed the leader of Hamas in Gaza and briefly served as the prime minister of a Palestinian unity government. However, his government was dissolved after months of internal conflict between Palestinian factions. He left Gaza in 2019 and lived in exile in Qatar.

In June, Hamas claimed that Haniyeh’s sister and her family were killed in an Israeli military strike on the Haniyeh family home in Gaza, though the military did not confirm this. Earlier in April, three of Haniyeh’s 13 sons were killed by Israeli forces during a military operation in Gaza.