Ismail Haniyeh Dies in Tehran During a Controversial Airstrike
From exile, Hamás leader Ismail Haniyeh watched his family shrink in numbers as violence pressed closer. In April, an Israeli strike killed three of his sons and four grandchildren in the car they were traveling in near Shati refugee camp on Gaza’s northern coast. Just over a month later, ten more relatives, including his sister, were killed in a similar strike in the same area. He later said that more than 60 relatives had been killed since October 7. “Anyone who thinks killing my children will make Hamás surrender is delusional,” he said a few months ago. This Wednesday, Haniyeh’s turn came. He died in Tehran, described by Hamás as the result of a “treacherous Zionist raid.”
He had long been one of the group’s most recognizable figures. At 62, he led talks aimed at a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Nearly ten months of Israeli operations have left more than 39,400 Gazans dead and widespread destruction across the territory. Israel’s response followed Hamás’s October 7 assault that killed 1,139 Israelis. Led by the political wing of Hamás, Haniyeh oversaw diplomacy and carried the banner of a surprise operation called the “Aqsa Flood.” At the time, many believed the more moderate voice within Hamás may not have foreseen the attack kept under tight secrecy.
“Our entire people and all families living in Gaza have paid a heavy price with the blood of their children, and I am one of them,” he recalled in April. Since 2017, Haniyeh had led Hamás from exile, living between Turkey and Doha, which allowed him to be the public face of the group’s external diplomacy. On Wednesday, he was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, just hours before an Israeli airstrike ended his life. Israel has thus struck one of the organization’s highest-ranking officials, raising the risk of a broader, full-scale war.
Nurtured as a child of refugees, Haniyeh grew up in the Shati refugee camp off the Gaza City coast. His parents were displaced from Ashkelon, a city that became part of Israel in 1948. He studied Arabic literature at the Islamic University of Gaza and became active in student politics before the rise of Hamás. In 1983, he joined the Islamic Students Bloc, a precursor to the group that would govern Gaza. By 1987, during the First Intifada, he was in the streets protesting. Hamás was founded later that year, and Haniyeh quickly emerged as a junior member with a growing role in the organization.
His commitment to the movement continued as he advanced, including three stints in Israeli jails. His longest sentence lasted three years, after which he was deported to Lebanon in 1992 with hundreds of Hamás members. A year after the Oslo Accords, he returned to Gaza and became the closest advisor to the founder, Ahmed Yassin, in 1997. In September 2003, the two survived an assassination attempt when they escaped a Gaza City building seconds before an Israeli airstrike.
In 2006, Hamás surged to power after winning Palestinian elections. Haniyeh briefly served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. Western powers rejected the results, and a short civil conflict ensued between Hamas and Fatah. Since then, Hamas has effectively controlled Gaza, while the enclave remains sealed off by Israel and Egypt. Even before the current devastation, Gaza had long been described as an “open-air prison.” Now, with nearly ten months of war, the damage and human toll have deepened, and Haniyeh, who managed the group’s diplomacy, could not escape the fate Israel has imposed on Gazans.
Last May, the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over alleged war crimes. When he assumed leadership in 2017, the United States designated him a “global terrorist,” though Washington acknowledged that Israel did not inform him about Tehran’s strike. After backing resistance in all its forms—popular, political, diplomatic, and military—Haniyeh has become a symbolic martyr for the Palestinian cause, joining many who came before him.
Note: This article draws on contemporary reporting and official statements. For broader context, see attributed reports from major outlets and primary sources cited within. [citation attribution: Reuters; Associated Press; Al Jazeera; official statements from Hamás].