As if he sensed his loss of life approaching, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s last phrases to Iranian supreme chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Ali Khamenei earlier than his assassination in Tehran have been a Koranic verse reflecting on life, loss of life, immortality, and resilience.
The alternate of phrases came about shortly earlier than an Israeli strike claimed his life. Identified for his robust stance and dedication to the Palestinian trigger, Haniyeh’s loss of life marks the third assassination of a Hamas chief by Israel within the final twenty years.
‘If a frontrunner leaves, one other will come up’
“It’s Allah who offers life and causes loss of life. And Allah is all-aware of all actions … ‘If a frontrunner leaves, one other will come up’,” Haniyeh stated in Arabic throughout his speech to Khamenei. A couple of hours later, he was killed in a suspected Israeli strike on his visitor home.
This assertion, broadcast on tv as Haniyeh addressed Khamenei, underlined the Islamist beliefs that formed his life and method to the Palestinians’ battle with Israel. He was impressed by the late Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who advocated for Jihad towards Israel within the Eighties. Israel imprisoned and finally assassinated Yassin in 2004, but Hamas developed right into a formidable navy entity.
In a 1994 interview with Reuters in Gaza, Haniyeh, who was buried in Qatar on Friday, credited Yassin with educating that Palestinians may solely regain their occupied homeland by way of “the purified arms of its males and their battle.”
“No Muslim ought to die in his mattress whereas ‘Palestine’ stays occupied,” he quoted Yassin as saying.
For Palestinian supporters, Haniyeh and different Hamas leaders characterize fighters for liberation from Israeli occupation, persistently advocating their trigger when worldwide diplomacy has faltered.
He stated he discovered from Sheikh Yassin “the love of Islam and sacrifice for this Islam and to not kneel all the way down to tyrants and despots.”
Haniyeh emerged because the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group’s worldwide diplomacy amid ongoing battle in Gaza. Tragically, three of his sons – Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad – and 4 of his grandchildren have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in April. An estimated 60 different members of his prolonged household have been additionally casualties of the Gaza struggle.
“The blood of my youngsters shouldn’t be extra worthwhile than the blood of the kids of the Palestinian folks … All of the martyrs of Palestine are my youngsters,” he stated after their deaths.
“By the blood of the martyrs and the ache of the injured, we create hope, we create the longer term, we create independence and freedom for our folks,” he said. “We are saying to the occupation that this blood will solely make us extra steadfast in our ideas and attachment to our land.”
‘Normalisation is not going to finish battle’
Haniyeh was appointed to the highest Hamas place in 2017 and traveled between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha. This mobility allowed him to evade the journey restrictions of the blockaded Gaza Strip and facilitated his function in ceasefire negotiations and dialogues with Hamas’ ally Iran.
“All of the agreements of normalisation that you simply [Arab states] signed with [Israel] is not going to finish this battle,” Haniyeh declared shortly after Hamas fighters launched the October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,200 folks in Israel and the seize of 250 hostages.
Israel responded with a navy marketing campaign that has killed round 40,000 folks inside Gaza thus far and left a lot of the enclave in ruins.
Arrest warrants for struggle crimes
In Might, the Worldwide Felony Courtroom prosecutor’s workplace requested arrest warrants for 3 Hamas leaders, together with Haniyeh, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for alleged struggle crimes. Each Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed these allegations.
Haniyeh is the third Hamas chief assassinated by Israel over the previous twenty years. Israel beforehand killed Sheikh Yassin and his successor Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi inside a month of one another in helicopter airstrikes in 2004.
Khaled Meshaal, who is anticipated to succeed Haniyeh as chief, survived a botched assassination try ordered by Netanyahu in 1997.
Adeeb Ziadeh, a specialist in Palestinian affairs at Qatar College, emphasised that Hamas is an ideology and that the killing of Haniyeh is not going to dismantle the group or drive it to give up.
“Each time Hamas misplaced one chief, one other chief got here, generally even stronger in his efficiency and fulfilling Hamas ideas,” Ziadeh stated.
Israel introduced on Thursday that Mohammed Deif, one of many masterminds of the Oct. 7 assault, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza final month. Saleh Al-Arouri, one of many founders of Hamas’ navy wing, was additionally killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in January 2024.
Navy functionality
Hamas’ 1988 founding constitution known as for the destruction of Israel, though Hamas leaders have often proposed a long-term truce in alternate for a viable Palestinian state on all territories occupied by Israel within the 1967 struggle. Israel, nonetheless, considers this a ruse.
Over the a long time, Hamas has fired 1000’s of rockets at Israel and engaged in a number of wars with the Israeli military, whereas repeatedly increase its navy capabilities. Hamas additionally orchestrated suicide bombings in Israel in the course of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
In 2012, when requested by Reuters if Hamas had deserted the armed battle, Haniyeh replied, “in fact not,” and asserted that resistance would persist “in all kinds – well-liked resistance, political, diplomatic and navy resistance.”
Regardless of his robust rhetoric, Haniyeh was considered by some Arab diplomats and officers as comparatively average in contrast with extra hardline members of Hamas inside Gaza, the place the group’s navy wing deliberate the October 7 assault below the management of Yahya Sinwar.
‘Drowning within the sands of Gaza’
Whereas addressing Israel’s navy, he warned they’d discover themselves “drowning within the sands of Gaza,” however behind the scenes, Haniyeh and his predecessor Khaled Meshaal engaged in talks over a Qatari-brokered ceasefire cope with Israel, which included exchanging hostages for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Haniyeh, a Sunni Muslim, performed a serious function in bolstering Hamas’ navy capability by nurturing ties with Shi’ite Muslim Iran, which has overtly supplied navy and monetary assist to the group.
Upon leaving Gaza in 2017, Haniyeh was succeeded because the Hamas chief within the territory by Sinwar, a hardliner who spent greater than twenty years in Israeli prisons.
The alternate of phrases came about shortly earlier than an Israeli strike claimed his life. Identified for his robust stance and dedication to the Palestinian trigger, Haniyeh’s loss of life marks the third assassination of a Hamas chief by Israel within the final twenty years.
‘If a frontrunner leaves, one other will come up’
“It’s Allah who offers life and causes loss of life. And Allah is all-aware of all actions … ‘If a frontrunner leaves, one other will come up’,” Haniyeh stated in Arabic throughout his speech to Khamenei. A couple of hours later, he was killed in a suspected Israeli strike on his visitor home.
This assertion, broadcast on tv as Haniyeh addressed Khamenei, underlined the Islamist beliefs that formed his life and method to the Palestinians’ battle with Israel. He was impressed by the late Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who advocated for Jihad towards Israel within the Eighties. Israel imprisoned and finally assassinated Yassin in 2004, but Hamas developed right into a formidable navy entity.
In a 1994 interview with Reuters in Gaza, Haniyeh, who was buried in Qatar on Friday, credited Yassin with educating that Palestinians may solely regain their occupied homeland by way of “the purified arms of its males and their battle.”
“No Muslim ought to die in his mattress whereas ‘Palestine’ stays occupied,” he quoted Yassin as saying.
For Palestinian supporters, Haniyeh and different Hamas leaders characterize fighters for liberation from Israeli occupation, persistently advocating their trigger when worldwide diplomacy has faltered.
He stated he discovered from Sheikh Yassin “the love of Islam and sacrifice for this Islam and to not kneel all the way down to tyrants and despots.”
Haniyeh emerged because the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group’s worldwide diplomacy amid ongoing battle in Gaza. Tragically, three of his sons – Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad – and 4 of his grandchildren have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in April. An estimated 60 different members of his prolonged household have been additionally casualties of the Gaza struggle.
“The blood of my youngsters shouldn’t be extra worthwhile than the blood of the kids of the Palestinian folks … All of the martyrs of Palestine are my youngsters,” he stated after their deaths.
“By the blood of the martyrs and the ache of the injured, we create hope, we create the longer term, we create independence and freedom for our folks,” he said. “We are saying to the occupation that this blood will solely make us extra steadfast in our ideas and attachment to our land.”
‘Normalisation is not going to finish battle’
Haniyeh was appointed to the highest Hamas place in 2017 and traveled between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha. This mobility allowed him to evade the journey restrictions of the blockaded Gaza Strip and facilitated his function in ceasefire negotiations and dialogues with Hamas’ ally Iran.
“All of the agreements of normalisation that you simply [Arab states] signed with [Israel] is not going to finish this battle,” Haniyeh declared shortly after Hamas fighters launched the October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,200 folks in Israel and the seize of 250 hostages.
Israel responded with a navy marketing campaign that has killed round 40,000 folks inside Gaza thus far and left a lot of the enclave in ruins.
Arrest warrants for struggle crimes
In Might, the Worldwide Felony Courtroom prosecutor’s workplace requested arrest warrants for 3 Hamas leaders, together with Haniyeh, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for alleged struggle crimes. Each Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed these allegations.
Haniyeh is the third Hamas chief assassinated by Israel over the previous twenty years. Israel beforehand killed Sheikh Yassin and his successor Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi inside a month of one another in helicopter airstrikes in 2004.
Khaled Meshaal, who is anticipated to succeed Haniyeh as chief, survived a botched assassination try ordered by Netanyahu in 1997.
Adeeb Ziadeh, a specialist in Palestinian affairs at Qatar College, emphasised that Hamas is an ideology and that the killing of Haniyeh is not going to dismantle the group or drive it to give up.
“Each time Hamas misplaced one chief, one other chief got here, generally even stronger in his efficiency and fulfilling Hamas ideas,” Ziadeh stated.
Israel introduced on Thursday that Mohammed Deif, one of many masterminds of the Oct. 7 assault, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza final month. Saleh Al-Arouri, one of many founders of Hamas’ navy wing, was additionally killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in January 2024.
Navy functionality
Hamas’ 1988 founding constitution known as for the destruction of Israel, though Hamas leaders have often proposed a long-term truce in alternate for a viable Palestinian state on all territories occupied by Israel within the 1967 struggle. Israel, nonetheless, considers this a ruse.
Over the a long time, Hamas has fired 1000’s of rockets at Israel and engaged in a number of wars with the Israeli military, whereas repeatedly increase its navy capabilities. Hamas additionally orchestrated suicide bombings in Israel in the course of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
In 2012, when requested by Reuters if Hamas had deserted the armed battle, Haniyeh replied, “in fact not,” and asserted that resistance would persist “in all kinds – well-liked resistance, political, diplomatic and navy resistance.”
Regardless of his robust rhetoric, Haniyeh was considered by some Arab diplomats and officers as comparatively average in contrast with extra hardline members of Hamas inside Gaza, the place the group’s navy wing deliberate the October 7 assault below the management of Yahya Sinwar.
‘Drowning within the sands of Gaza’
Whereas addressing Israel’s navy, he warned they’d discover themselves “drowning within the sands of Gaza,” however behind the scenes, Haniyeh and his predecessor Khaled Meshaal engaged in talks over a Qatari-brokered ceasefire cope with Israel, which included exchanging hostages for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Haniyeh, a Sunni Muslim, performed a serious function in bolstering Hamas’ navy capability by nurturing ties with Shi’ite Muslim Iran, which has overtly supplied navy and monetary assist to the group.
Upon leaving Gaza in 2017, Haniyeh was succeeded because the Hamas chief within the territory by Sinwar, a hardliner who spent greater than twenty years in Israeli prisons.
