2024-07-31 23:04:37
The Hamas group described this killing as a serious escalation that will not go unanswered, The Guardian writes.
Haniyeh served as the head of Hamas’ political bureau for a long time and was considered a moderate figure in the movement. His role became crucial to the ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.
in 2017 he was elected the political leader of Hamas, and two years later he was exiled from the Gaza Strip to Qatar.
After his exile, he became the Palestinian group’s face of international diplomacy, shuttling between Turkey, Iran and Qatar and joining Hamas leaders holed up in Doha unable to return to Gaza.
Nevertheless, Haniyeh was seen as a key communicator with hardliners such as Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
He was seen by Arab diplomats and officials as relatively pragmatic compared to other more militant figures in the Gaza Strip, and some experts described him as leading Hamas’s political struggle against regional governments in the Middle East.
Even rivals condemned the killing
On Wednesday, Haniyeh’s killing was condemned by both his allies and former rivals, who feared his death during a visit to Tehran could provoke a wider backlash.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the killing “a cowardly act and a serious escalation”. Turkey’s foreign ministry called the killing “horrific”.
I. Haniyeh’s path to the Hamas group
I. Haniyeh was born in 1963. In the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. While studying at a university in Gaza, he joined a political group that was the forerunner of Hamas and became active in local politics and protests.
He joined Hamas in 1987, when the group was formed during the first Palestinian intifada, and was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by Israel. Together with other Hamas leaders in 1992 was exiled but returned to Gaza a year later.
I. Haniyeh became the protégé of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas, and in 2003 was his trusted assistant.
He was photographed at Yassin’s home in Gaza, holding a phone to the ear of the nearly paralyzed Hamas founder so he could take part in the conversation. in 2004 Israel killed A. Yassin.
Haniyeh was an early proponent of the group’s political agenda, and in 2006 he became the prime minister of Palestine after Hamas won the most seats in the Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Mr Abbas fired him in 2007, when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and Hamas took control.
During the decade that Haniyeh was Hamas’ top leader in the Gaza Strip, Israel accused his team of allegedly helping to divert humanitarian aid to the group’s military wing. Hamas has denied the accusation.
in 2007 Haniyeh helped free BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza and held by local Islamist groups for 16 weeks.
He ruled Gaza until 2017, after which he was elected head of the Hamas politburo. Haniyeh played an important role in strengthening Hamas’s fighting capabilities, in part by cultivating relations with Iran.
in 2022 I. Haniyeh told Al Jazeera that Hamas received 70 million. dollars in military aid from Iran.
When in 2017 Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip, replaced by Y. Sinwar, a hardliner who spent more than two decades in Israeli prisons and whom Haniyeh executed in 2011. accepted back to Gaza after the prisoner exchange.
Experts say that Y. Sinwar has the final say in making important decisions of the group. When Mr. Sinwar decided to cut ties during recent negotiations, the talks stalled.
“It made it pretty clear who was in charge here,” one European diplomatic source told the Guardian.
Diplomatic leader or terrorist?
Since 2017 Haniyeh is described as the political and diplomatic leader of Hamas. However, other descriptions are also heard.
Israel considers the entire leadership of Hamas to be terrorists and has accused Haniyeh and other leaders outside the Gaza Strip of continuing to “become the strings of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
in 2018 The US State Department has designated Haniyeh as a terrorist, saying he was an “advocate of armed conflict, including against civilians” and that Hamas’ activities were responsible for “approximately 17 American lives lost in terrorist attacks.”
Haniyeh’s three sons, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad, were killed in Gaza on April 10 when an Israeli airstrike hit the car they were traveling in. Haniyeh also lost four of his grandchildren, three girls and a boy, Hamas said.
At the time, the Hamas leader said the attack would not change the group’s demands for a permanent ceasefire and the return of displaced Palestinians from their homes in ongoing talks brokered by Doha and Washington.
“All our people and all the families of Gaza have paid a heavy price in blood, and I am one of them,” Haniyeh said.
Painting clothes „The Guardian“ inf.
2024-07-31 23:04:37