Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader on Israel's hit list since October 7, killed in airstrike at 61

BEIRUT: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' supreme leader in exile who landed on Israel's hit list after the militant group staged its surprise October 7 attacks, was killed in an airstrike in the Iranian capital early Wednesday. He was 61.

Hamas said Haniyeh was killed at his residence in Tehran in an Israeli airstrike after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's new president. Israel has not commented on the accusation.

Haniyeh's death makes him the latest Hamas official to be killed by Israel since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, when militants killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. The devastating Israel-Hamas war the attacks set off has become the deadliest and longest in the Arab-Israeli conflict. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza.

While Hamas' Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar is believed to have been the mastermind of the attacks, Haniyeh, seen as a more moderate force in Hamas, lauded them as a humiliating blow to Israel's aura of invincibility.

“The Al-Aqsa flood was an earthquake that struck the heart of the Zionist entity and has made major changes at the world level,” Haniyeh said in a speech in Iran during the funeral of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May.

“We will continue the resistance against this enemy until we liberate our land, all our land,” Haniyeh said.

Hours after the October 7 attacks, Haniyeh appeared in a video released by Hamas leading prayers with other top Hamas officials. They thanked God for the success of the attack, which blasted through Israel's vaunted defences and resulted in the deadliest assault in Israel's history.

Michael Milshtein, a Hamas expert at Tel Aviv University, said Haniyeh had a commanding role in the group's foreign policy and diplomacy, but was less involved in military affairs.

“He was responsible for propaganda, for diplomatic relations, but he was not very powerful,” said Milshtein, a former military intelligence officer. “From time to time, Sinwar even laughed and joked: He's the more moderate, sophisticated leader, but he doesn't understand anything about warfare.'”

Still, Israel pledged to target all of Hamas' leaders following the attacks and has gradually worked to fulfil that promise.

Haniyeh was also under the eye of the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants against him and two other Hamas leaders, Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Similar requests were issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Haniyeh lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019 and the threats against him did not prevent him from travelling. He visited Turkiye and Iran throughout the war. From Doha, he was involved in negotiations meant to bring about a cease-fire and free the hostages.

His role in Hamas' leadership also cost him his closest relatives. In April, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed three of Haniyeh's sons, after which he accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder”.

Hamas said four of the leader's grandchildren were also killed as well as his sister in a separate strike last month.

Haniyeh, who was born in Gaza's urban Shati refugee camp on January 29, 1963, joined Hamas when it was founded in 1987. He served as an aid to Ahmad Yassin, the group's founder, and rose throughout the years until he became its top political leader, replacing Khaled Mashaal in 2017.

Haniyeh was deeply religious and studied Arabic literature at university. He was known for delivering lengthy speeches using flowery language to his supporters while serving as prime minister in Gaza.

Hani Masri, a veteran Palestinian analyst who met Haniyeh several times, said the late leader's personality was a natural fit for the head of the group's political bureau in Doha. He described him as having been sociable and well spoken.

Haniyeh, like thousands of other Palestinians, was detained by Israeli authorities in 1989 for being a member of Hamas and spent three years in jail before he was deported to Lebanon in 1992 with a group of top Hamas officials and founders. He later returned to the Gaza Strip following the 1993 interim peace accords, which were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Haniyeh assumed the position of prime minister in the Palestinian government after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. He presided over the gravest crisis in the Palestinian leadership in its history, which continues until today.

Hamas violently overran Gaza in 2007, routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction and installing itself as ruler of the tiny coastal enclave, with Haniyeh as prime minister.