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Ismail Haniyeh [e] (Arabic: إسماعيل هنية, romanized: Ismāʿīl Haniyyah [7] [5] [8] pronunciation ⓘ; [f] c. 1962 or 1963 [c] – 31 July 2024) was a Palestinian politician who served as chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from May 2017 until his assassination in July 2024.
Jul 31, 2024 · Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas since 2017, has been the most visible leader of the group during Israel’s war in Gaza, and was key in ongoing ceasefire and hostage release...
- 3 min
- Jessie Yeung
- Overview
- Early life and political activity
- Prime ministership and Hamas leadership
Ismail Haniyeh (born 1962?, Al-Shāṭiʾ refugee camp, Gaza Strip) Palestinian politician and Hamas leader who served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2006–07, after Hamas won a majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. After interfactional fighting with rival Fatah led to the dissolution of the government ...
The son of Palestinian Arab parents displaced from their village near Ashqelon (in what is now Israel) in 1948, Haniyeh spent his early life in the Gaza Strip’s Al-Shāṭiʾ refugee camp, where he was born. As was typical for refugee children, Haniyeh was educated in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which also provided food aid and medicine for the inhabitants of the camp. In 1981 Haniyeh enrolled in the Islamic University of Gaza, where he studied Arabic literature. He was also active in student politics, leading an Islamist student association affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
When the Islamist group Hamas formed in 1988, Haniyeh was among its younger founding members, having developed close ties with the group’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Haniyeh was arrested by Israeli authorities in 1988 and imprisoned for six months for his participation in the first intifada (uprising against Israeli occupation). He was arrested again in 1989 and remained in prison until Israel deported him to south Lebanon in 1992 along with approximately 400 other Islamists. Haniyeh returned to Gaza in 1993 following the Oslo Accords. Upon his return, he was appointed dean of the Islamic University.
Haniyeh’s leadership role in Hamas took root in 1997 when he became Yassin’s personal secretary. He remained a close confidant of the spiritual leader for the remainder of Yassin’s life. The two were targets of a failed assassination attempt by Israel in 2003, though Yassin was assassinated only a few months later.
In 2006 Hamas participated in the Palestinian legislative elections, with Haniyeh heading the list. The group won a majority of seats in the parliament, and Haniyeh became prime minister of the PA. The international community reacted to Hamas’s leadership by freezing aid to the PA, placing significant financial stress on the governing body. In June 2007, after months of tension that included armed conflict between the factions, Pres. Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah party dismissed Haniyeh and dissolved his government.
The result of the standoff was an autonomous Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, led by Haniyeh. Soon after, Israel implemented a package of sanctions and restrictions on the Gaza Strip, with Egypt following suit. After a barrage of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel in January 2008, Israel intensified its blockade.
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Nevertheless, Hamas remained in control of the Gaza Strip, and its rule oscillated between occasional political successes and setbacks. In terms of extracting concessions from Israel, Hamas secured the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas’s performance in the war with Israel in the summer of 2014, moreover, was widely viewed as successful by the Palestinian public. But, most notably, the continued blockade caused living conditions in the Gaza Strip to deteriorate significantly.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
On 31 July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated along with his personal bodyguard in the Iranian capital Tehran by an apparent Israeli attack. [5] Haniyeh was killed in his accommodation in a military-run guesthouse after attending the inauguration ceremony for Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Jul 31, 2024 · Ismail Haniyeh, a founding member of Hamas who rose to lead the Palestinian militant group’s political office from exile, was killed while visiting Iran on Wednesday. He was 62.
www.nytimes.com · 2024/08/01 · worldHow Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Was Killed in Iran - The New ...
Aug 1, 2024 · Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, according to seven Middle...
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Jul 31, 2024 · Hamas said its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in the Iranian capital of Tehran, a major development that throws the region into an unpredictable and dangerous new...
