Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was killed in Iran, was the Palestinian group's determined “face” in the face of international diplomacy, amid the flare-up of the conflict in Gaza.
Three of his sons had previously been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
But despite the rhetoric, he was considered by many diplomats to be a moderate compared to the hardliners of the Iran-backed group.
Appointed to the top job leading Hamas in 2017, he lived between Turkey and the Qatari capital, Doha, allowing him to escape travel restrictions in blockaded Gaza and act as a mediator in ceasefire talks. or talk to Hamas's ally, Iran.
“All the normalization agreements that you (the Arab states) signed with (Israel) will not end this conflict”Ismail Haniyeh declared on Qatar-based Al Jazeera television shortly after Hamas fighters launched the October 7 attack.
Israel's military campaign in response to the attack has so far killed 35,000 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
His sons were killed by Israeli airstrikes
Three of Haniyeh's sons, Hazem, Armir and Mohammadi, were killed on April 10 when Israeli airstrikes hit the car they were traveling in, Hamas said. His three nieces and nephew were also killed in the attack, according to the Hamas group.
He had denied Israeli claims that his sons were Hamas fighters and declared that “the interests of the Palestinian people are more important than anything else”, when asked if their killing would have an impact on the ceasefire talks.
For all the harsh language in public, Arab diplomats and officials had seen him as relatively pragmatic compared to the harsher voices inside Gaza, where Hamas' military wing planned the October 7 attack.
While telling the Israeli military that they would fail in Gaza, he and his predecessor, Khaled Meshaal, had traveled repeatedly to the region for talks on a Qatari-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel that would include swapping hostages held in Gaza with Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel considers the entire Hamas leadership to be terrorists and has accused Haniyeh, Meshaal and others of continuing to “pull the strings of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
But it is unclear how much Ismail Haniyeh knew about the October 7 attack. The plan, drawn up by Hamas' military council in Gaza, had been kept so secret that some Hamas officials seemed shocked by its timing and scope.
However, Haniyei, a Sunni Muslim, was instrumental in building up Hamas's fighting capabilities, in part by nurturing ties with Iran's Shiite Muslims, a country that has made no secret of its support for the Hamas group.
During the decade in which Haniyeh was the main leader of Hamas in Gaza, Israel has accused his leadership team of helping to divert humanitarian aid to Gaza to the group's military wing. Hamas has denied such a claim.
Diplomacy
When he left Gaza in 2017, he was replaced by Yahya Sinwar, a hardliner who had been in prison in Israel for more than 2 decades and whom Haniyehi welcomed to Gaza in 2021 after an agreement for the exchange of prisoners.
Before Haniyeh's death, Adeeb Ziadeh, a specialist on Palestinian affairs at Qatar University, said that “Haniyehu is leading the political battle for Hamas with Arab governments,” adding that Haniyehu had close ties to more hard-line figures. in the group and the military wing.
“He is the political and diplomatic front of Hamas,” Mr. Ziadeh had declared.
Haniyehu and Meshaalu had met officials in Egypt, which has also played a mediating role in the ceasefire talks. Mr. Haniyeh traveled in early November to Tehran to meet with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian state media reported.
Three senior officials told Reuters that Khamenei had told the Hamas leader at that meeting that Iran would not enter the war because it had not been notified in advance. Hamas did not respond to a request for comment before Reuters published the story about the claims, but issued a statement after publication denying such claims.
Ismail Haniyeh studied at the Islamic University in the Gaza Strip. He joined Hamas when the organization was created during the First Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in 1987. He was arrested and briefly exiled.
Haniyehu had the protection and support of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who, like Haniyehu's family, was a refugee from the village of Al Juram near Ashkelon.
In 1994, he told the Reuters agency that Yassini was a model for Palestinian youth, stating that “we learned from him love and sacrifice for Islam and not to kneel to tyrants.”
By 2003 he had become a trusted aide to Yassin. He was photographed at Yassin's home in Gaza holding the phone to the nearly paralyzed Hamas founder's ear so he could take part in the conversation.
Yassini was assassinated by Israel in 2004.
Haniyeh had defended the idea of Hamas entering politics. In 1994, he said that the formation of a political party “would enable Hamas to deal with the unfolding events”.
The idea was initially opposed by the Hamas leadership, but was later approved and Haniyehu took over as Palestinian prime minister after the group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, a year after the Israeli army withdrew from Gaza.
The group took over the governance of Gaza in 2007.
In 2012, when asked by Reuters reporters if Hamas had abandoned the armed struggle, Haniyehu replied “of course not” and said that the resistance will continue “in all forms, popular resistance, political resistance, diplomatic and military”.
