Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran, on July 31, the Palestinian militant group said. According to Iranian state media, Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed in a strike on the building they were staying in.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian when the incident occurred.

Hamas released a statement condemning the attack and saying Haniyeh was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”. This allegation has not been confirmed by Iranian authorities. 

Here are some facts about the Hamas leader:

1. Ismail Haniyeh was born on January 29, 1962, in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. His family, Palestinian refugees, fled their home near the present-day Israeli town of Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He studied Arabic literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, graduating in 1987. 

2. Haniyeh’s involvement in politics began in the 1980s as a student leader at the Islamic University. He was a key figure in the founding of Hamas in 1987 and became a close advisor to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. After Yassin’s assassination in 2004, Haniyeh became the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau. In 2017, he succeeded Khaled Mashal as the political chief of Hamas.

3. In 1988, he was arrested by Israeli authorities for joining the First Intifada, a mass uprising against Israeli occupation that began in 1987 and lasted until 1993. He spent six months in jail and was arrested again in 1989. In 1992, he was deported to south Lebanon along with 400 other Islamists.

4. Haniyeh became the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2006, a position he held until 2007. During this time, Hamas secured a surprising majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative council elections. However, internal strife with rival Fatah led to the disbandment of the government and the formation of an independent Hamas-led administration in the Gaza Strip, which Haniyeh led from 2007 to 2014. 

5. Ismail Haniyeh was married and was father to five children. His three sons, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on April 10, 2024. 

Israel vowed to kill Ismail Haniyeh and destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack that killed 1,195 people. Since then, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 39,400 people and caused injuries to 90,923 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Palestinians attend a protest after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian factions called for unity and a general strike on July 31 to protest the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Tehran.

“The national and Islamic factions in Palestine announce a comprehensive strike and anger marches to (protest) the assassination of the great national leader Ismail Haniyeh, which came in the framework of Zionist state terrorism and its war of extermination,” the Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank said in a joint statement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that he “condemns the assassination of leader Haniyeh and calls on our people and their forces to unite and stand firm”.

In an unusual display of solidarity with his main political rival, Mr. Abbas called for a day of mourning for the man he had named Prime Minister in 2006 and dismissed in 2007. Flags are to be flown at half-mast.

The Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah condemned “the treacherous assassination” of Haniyeh, and called on Palestinians to remain united “in the face of the (Israeli) occupation”.

Employees of government ministries in Ramallah left their offices in response to the strike call.

Shops closed and employees left work in several cities in the occupied West Bank, while cultural institutions announced they would remain closed.

Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (not pictured), in Tehran, Iran on June 20, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran’s Tehran, the Palestinian militant group Hamas said in a statement on July 31. In a statement, the Islamist faction mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that the Hamas chief and one of his bodyguards were assassinated in Tehran, Iranian state media reported.

Earlier on April 10, three sons of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist group and Haniyeh’s family said.

The three sons — Hazem, Amir and Mohammad — were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp, Hamas said. Two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack and a third was wounded, Hamas media said.

Appointed to the militant group’s top job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, avoiding Israeli-imposed travel restrictions in blockaded Gaza and enabling him to act as a negotiator in the latest ceasefire negotiations, or communicate with Hamas’ main ally Iran.

(With inputs from agencies)