Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader assassinated in Iran?
PTC News Desk: Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, was 'assassinated' in Iran's Tehran, a Hamas statement revealed on Wednesday.
The statement from Hamas came after Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced the 'martyrdom' of the group's top leader.
The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) expressed condolences and said, "With condolences to the heroic nation of Palestine and the Islamic nation and combatants of the Resistant Front and the noble nation of Iran, this morning the residence of Mr. Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of the Islamic Resistance of Hamas, was hit in Tehran, and following this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred."
The Hamas chief was in Tehran for Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian's swearing-in ceremony.
While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the incident, analysts on Iranian official television immediately accused Israel.
The battle between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, last year, when the latter launched strikes in Israel, killing over 1200 people and capturing another 250.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, around 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 injured as a result of the retaliation.
Haniyeh was considered as the main head of Hamas. Haniyeh, like Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, was part of Hamas' radical operations in the late 1980s and was jailed multiple times by Israeli forces.
After being released from prison in 1992, Israel him and many other Hamas officials to a no-man's land in southern Lebanon. One year later, he returned to Gaza. His rapid rise within Hamas began in 1997 when he was appointed to oversee the office of the movement's spiritual leader, Sheikh Shmed Yassin. In March 2004, an Israeli strike killed Sheikh Yassin, who was quadriplegic and nearly blind.
Haniyeh was Hamas' Parliamentary leader in 2006 when the Palestinian Authority held elections in the West Bank and Gaza. He led the Islamist group to an unexpected win, becoming the 'Prime Minister of the State of Palestine'. However, the Palestinian Authority's financial benefactors in the West refused to accept a Hamas-led government. Neither did Israel. Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was likewise disappointed with Hamas' victory.
As tensions between Fatah and Hamas spiked President Abbas dissolved the Hamas cabinet led by Haniyeh in 2007. Haniyeh didn't accept Abbas' decree and continued to rule from Gaza, his stronghold, while Fatah controlled the Palestine Authority in the West Bank.
Haniyeh resigned as Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017, making way for Sinwar's ascension. In the same year, Haniyeh succeeded Khaled Meshal as chairman of Hamas' Political Bureau.
- PTC NEWS
