Ismail Haniyeh (29 January 1963 – 31 July 2024) was the former head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, who was assassinated, and a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

Born in 1963 in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh was the child of a family that had fled the city of Ashkelon (then known as Asqalan) after Israel’s establishment in 1948. He completed his secondary education at the Al-Ezher Institute in Gaza and graduated in 1987 from Gaza Islamic University with a degree in Arab literature.

While at university in 1983, he joined the Islamic Student Bloc, the precursor to Hamas. During these years, he was arrested multiple times by Israeli forces and spent several periods in Israeli prisons during the 1980s. Haniyeh witnessed both the outbreak of the First Intifada and the founding of Hamas in the year he graduated, 1987. In 1988, at age 25, he was imprisoned for 18 days for participating in protests against the Israeli occupation and was later fined for six months. In 1989, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

After his release from prison, Israel expelled Haniyeh along with hundreds of other Palestinian leaders and activists to southern Lebanon. Haniyeh spent a year there, during which the group gained global visibility through media outreach. Following the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, the 31-year-old Haniyeh returned to Gaza and began serving as a dean at Gaza Islamic University.

After the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2001, Haniyeh strengthened his position as one of Hamas’s political leaders. In 2003, Israel bombed a building in central Gaza targeting Haniyeh and Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Haniyeh survived the attack, but six months later Yassin was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike as he left morning prayers.

In 2006, at age 44, Haniyeh led Hamas to victory over Fatah in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. He briefly served as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, but Western countries refused to cooperate with Hamas. Violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah that began in the same year led to the collapse of the unity government in 2007. Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office; however, Haniyeh assumed leadership of an independent government in the Gaza Strip under Hamas’s authority. In response, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza.

In 2018, the administration of then U.S. President Donald Trump designated Haniyeh as a “specifically designated global terrorist.” This decision restricted his travel. Nevertheless, Haniyeh was known within the Palestinian resistance as a “pragmatic” leader with open channels of communication with various groups.

In 2019, Haniyeh left Gaza and began leading Hamas’s diplomatic efforts as head of its Political Bureau. He continued to reside in Qatar and became the international voice of the resistance movement.

^{Ismail Haniyeh and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – Presidency Communications Directorate}

On 10 April 2024, Haniyeh’s three sons—Hazem, Amir, and Muhammad—along with their children, were killed during the ongoing war in Gaza. Despite this tragedy, Haniyeh reiterated his call for resistance, stating, “We are building hope, a future, and independence from the blood of the martyrs and the pain of the wounded.”

On 31 July 2024, Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, where he had been attending the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The assassination was assessed by Hamas’s armed wing as marking a new phase in the conflict with major consequences. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the incident as an “acute tragedy” and pledged to punish Israel “severely.” Iran and its allies claimed that this assassination was supported not only by Israel but also by the United States.

Haniyeh’s death further heightened tensions in the Middle East and sparked widespread anger among resistance movements. Hamas declared that it would continue his legacy and sustain the struggle.