Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas chief assassinated in Iran? 6 things

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, along with one of his bodyguards, was assassinated in Iran’s Tehran, the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Wednesday. According to Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a “treacherous Zionist raid” on his residence in Tehran.

Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas chief killed in Iran?

Ismail Haniyeh was a prominent Palestinian political figure who has played a key role in the complex landscape of Middle East politics. Born in 1963 in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, Ismail Haniyeh attended United Nations-run schools and graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a degree in Arabic literature in 1987. While at university, he had become involved with Hamas.

Ismail Haniyeh participated in protests in the First Intifada and was given a prison sentence by an Israeli military court. Following his release, the Israeli military authorities of the occupied Palestinian territories deported him to Lebanon with senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Mahmoud Zahhar, Aziz Duwaik, and 400 other activists.

He was appointed to head the Hamas office in 1997 after Israel released Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas. In December 2005, Haniyeh was elected to head the Hamas list, which won the Legislative Council elections the following month.

Haniyeh became the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority government following Hamas’s victory in the 2006 legislative election. However, he was dismissed from his position by President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, deepening the political conflict between Fatah and Hamas.

During the Fatah-Hamas conflict, Haniyeh was denied entry to Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah Border Crossing while he was returning from his first official trip abroad as prime minister in 2006. Later when he attempted to cross the border, an exchange of gunfire left one bodyguard dead and Haniyeh’s eldest son wounded.

In 2016, Haniyeh succeeded Khaled Mashaal’s head leadership of Hamas in elections.