Terror organization: Hamas

Status: Current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau;

Role: Palestinian politician who is a senior political leader of Hamas, the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau; as of 2023, Haniyeh lives in Qatar;

Location: Qatar;

Born: 29 January 1962;

Place of Birth: Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine;

Gender: Male;

Known also as: Ismail Hanieh; Ismael Haniya; Ismail Haniya; Ismael Haniyah; Ismail Haniyah; Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh; Ismayil Haniyeh; Ismail Haniyyah;

Activities:

Ismail Haniyeh is the leader and President of the Political Bureau of Hamas, which was designated in 1997 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.

Haniyeh is also considered one of the most prominent figures in Hamas. He was elected to be the group’s political chief in May 2017, replacing Khaled Meshaal.

Haniyeh has close links with Hamas military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians. He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.

Ismail Haniyeh was born on January 29, 1962, in the Al-Shāṭiʾ refugee camp in Gaza Strip. He is a Palestinian politician and a prominent leader of Hamas.

Haniyeh received his primary education in institutions managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

He started studying Arabic literature at the Islamic University of Gaza in 1981. He was also a prominent figure in a student association linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, participating actively in student politics.

In 1988, Haniyeh was arrested by Israeli authorities for joining the first uprising against Israeli control, also known as the first intifada. He spent six months in jail and was arrested again in 1989 and remained in prison until 1992 when Israel deported him and about 400 other Islamists to south Lebanon. The first Intifada began in 1987 and lasted till 1993, the uprising against Israeli occupation of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem witnessed massive protests and even suicide bombings.

Ismail Haniyeh’s political journey includes serving as the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) from 2006 to 2007, a tenure that began after Hamas secured a suprising majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian legislative council elections.

He took on the role of leading the de facto government in Gaza from 2007 to 2014 after an internal strife with rival Fatah, which now governs in West Bank, leading to the disbandment of the government and the formation of an independent Hamas-led administration in the Gaza Strip. Later, in 2017, he was appointed to take over from Khaled Meshaal as the head of Hamas’s political bureau.

Haniyeh served as Palestinian Authority prime minister in a brief unity government that followed; however, in 2007, Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority in a short civil war and seized control of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority maintains control of parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Neither group has held democratic elections in the years since.

Haniyeh led Hamas within Gaza until 2017, when he was promoted to political leader of the larger organization (which has branches for Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and among Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons). He was succeeded in his previous role by Sinwar.

One of Haniyeh’s key roles was to oversee the group’s financial operations, drawing from sources including taxes on Palestinians in Gaza and fees on black-market smuggling that proliferated amid the Israeli blockade. U.S. officials estimate Hamas has an investment portfolio worth more than $500 million, and possibly as much as $1 billion, with assets in countries such as Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. It also has other international funding sources, including Iran.

In 2018, the U.S. State Department placed Haniyeh on its Specially Designated Global Terrorists list, which triggers economic sanctions. “Haniyeh has close links with Hamas’ military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians,” it said at the time. “He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.”

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Haniyeh in May, along with Sinwar and Deif, for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, torture and taking hostages, during and since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. (Warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were also sought.)

On 20 May 2024, an arrest warrant for Haniyeh, as well as for other Palestinian and Israeli leaders, was requested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine, on several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Israel-Hamas war.

Relations with Israel

In March 2002, during the Second Intifada, Haniyeh was quoted as saying, “Jews love life more than any other people, and they prefer not to die,” reflecting the view that Palestinian suicide bombings had exposed Israel’s greatest vulnerability after years of conflict.

In August 2006, on his first visit abroad as prime minister to Iran, Haniyeh said: “We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem”. In December 2010, Haniyeh stated at a news conference in Gaza, “We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees.” In addition, he said that if the Palestinian electorate approves such a peace agreement with Israel, his government will abide by it notwithstanding previous Hamas positions on the issue.

On 23 March 2014, during a festival commemorating the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Sheik Ahmad Yassin, Haniyeh delivered a speech to a crowd of Hamas supporters, saying “From within Gaza, I repeat again and again: We will not recognize Israel… The Gaza blockade is unfortunately getting tighter and tighter.” During this speech, the crowd chanted “Move forward Hamas, move! We are the cannon and you are the bullets. … Oh Qassam, our beloved, bombard Tel Aviv.”

Death

On 31 July 2024, Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration of newly elected President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian.[102] Hamas said that he was killed, along with one of his bodyguards, by a “Zionist” airstrike on a residence. He was 62 at the time. According to The New York Times and other sources, Haniyeh was assassinated using a remotely detonated explosive device hidden in his guesthouse room two months earlier, which was triggered once he was confirmed to be inside. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran said that Haniyeh was killed by “a short-range projectile carrying about 7kg of explosive materials” that was launched from outside the building he was staying in.

A funeral was held for Haniyeh in Tehran on 1 August, with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei leading prayers. Haniyeh’s remains were then taken to Qatar and buried in Lusail the following day.