- Hamas realist: Foreign Minister Ismail Haniyeh
With the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas loses its most important and visible leader outside the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh was a key member of the Islamist terror organization for decades. During the ongoing war with Israel in Gaza, he was a crucial figure for international mediators trying to broker a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. His death has made the future of these negotiations uncertain.
Haniyeh was born in 1963 in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza and grew up in poverty. His parents were expelled from Askalan, which later became the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. He joined Hamas in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising, Intifada, against Israeli occupation. In the following years, he served several prison sentences in Israeli jails, returning to Gaza in 1993.
He gained prominence as a close associate of spiritual Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, who was killed in a targeted Israeli air strike in 2004. After Hamas' victory over the rival Palestinian Fatah movement in the 2006 elections, he briefly served as Palestinian Authority prime minister. In 2017, he led a Hamas delegation to meet with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Haniyeh had become a prominent political figure and was later placed on the U.S.'s global terrorist list. He lived in Qatar, reportedly in luxurious style with parts of his family. In April, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza also killed three of his sons and four of his grandchildren. Israel held him responsible for the brutal terror attack by Hamas on October 7, which led to the Gaza war, and had vowed to eliminate the entire Hamas leadership.
Within the Hamas leadership, Haniyeh was seen as a more pragmatic voice and a face for Hamas diplomacy in the Middle East. Compared to Gaza Strip Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar and his deputy Mohammed Deif, Haniyeh played a crucial role in negotiating with Israel through mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the U.S. It remains unclear whether and how these negotiations will continue. A successor will need to be found for Haniyeh. However, this would not be the first time for Hamas.
The United States strongly condemned Haniyeh's inclusion on their global terrorist list due to his leadership role in Hamas. Despite living in luxury in Qatar, Haniyeh's influence extended beyond the Middle East, attracting attention and concern from international political entities in the United States of America.
