Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran’s capital Tehran.
Haniyeh, 62, had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday shortly before he was assassinated.
Here is what we know about him and his life:
Haniyeh’s early years were shaped by Israeli occupation
Born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Haniyeh’s parents had fled from Asqalan – a city now known as Ashkelon – after the state of Israel was created in 1948. Haniyeh pursued his secondary education at the al-Azhar Institute in Gaza and later earned a degree in Arabic literature from the Islamic University in Gaza.
While at university in 1983, Haniyeh joined the Islamic student bloc, a precursor to Hamas.
He was arrested by the Israeli military and served several sentences in Israeli jails in the 1980s.
Israel imprisoned Haniyeh for 18 days at the age of 25, when he took part in protests against the occupation. A year later, in 1988, he was jailed again for six months. He spent another three years in prison in 1989.
The year he graduated, 1987, marked the start of the first Palestinian mass uprising against Israeli occupation, known as the first Intifada, and the founding of Hamas.
From prison cells to leadership
Following his release, Israel deported Haniyeh to southern Lebanon along with hundreds of other Palestinian leaders and activists, where he spent a year. During that time, the group received unprecedented media coverage, establishing a global reputation.
After the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Haniyeh returned to Gaza in 1993, at the age of 31, and was appointed dean of the Islamic University.
Haniyeh climbed the ranks within the movement as a close aide and assistant of Hamas’s cofounder, the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Failed 2003 Israeli assassination attempt
In 2001, as the second Intifada erupted, Haniyeh consolidated his position as one of Hamas’s political leaders, along with Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, who was among the co-founders of Hamas.
In 2003, Haniyeh and Yassin escaped an assassination attempt when Israeli jets bombed an apartment block in downtown Gaza where the two men were meeting. Only six months later, Yassin, who was a quadriplegic, was targeted and killed by Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque after the early morning prayer.
In 2006, at the age of 44, Haniyeh led Hamas to a legislative election victory over the Fatah movement, which had been in power for more than a decade.
“Don’t be afraid,” Haniyeh told the BBC in 2006. “Hamas is a Palestinian movement, it is an aware and mature movement, one which is politically open in the Palestinian arena, and to its Arab and Islamic hinterland, and similarly open to the international arena.”
Though he briefly served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2006, the West – whose aid is critical for the functioning of the PA – refused to work with Hamas. Fatah and Hamas were also soon locked in violent battles that led to the dismantling of their unity government in 2007.
Haniyeh was dismissed as prime minister by the president of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas. This set the stage for an independent Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip – headed by Haniyeh. In response, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza.
“This seizure should not break our will and should not turn this conflict into an internal Palestinian conflict and that conflict should be against the parties that impose the siege against the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh then said.
In 2018, the United States under President Donald Trump designated Haniyeh a “terrorist”, saying he had been a “proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians”. The designation effectively imposed travel restrictions on the Hamas leader and meant that any US-based financial assets he may have had were frozen.
Within the Palestinian movement, Haniyeh had the reputation of a “pragmatist” who had open channels with different factions of the liberation struggle.
Scrutiny after leaving Gaza in 2019
In 2019, having stepped down as Hamas head in Gaza, Haniyeh left the enclave and began living abroad, leading the group’s diplomatic efforts as its political chief.
On April 10, 2024, three of his children – Hazem, Amir and Mohammad, along with a number of his grandchildren, were killed in Gaza, amid the continuing war.
“Through the blood of the martyrs and the pain of the injured, we create hope, we create the future, we create independence and freedom for our people and our nation,” he said, adding that about 60 members of his family, including nieces and nephews, have been killed since the start of the war.
“There is no doubt that this criminal enemy is driven by the spirit of revenge and the spirit of murder and bloodshed, and it does not observe any standards or laws,” Haniyeh said.
