Gaza's prominent political figure Ismail Haniyeh, who played a crucial role in the middle-eastern politics while being the top leader of the Islamist group Hamas that runs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, has been assassinated in Iran's capital Tehran on Wednesday, July 31, a Hamas statement confirmed.
Despite the fact that the initial official statement had no mention of who was behind the incident and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the Iranian state television analysts left no stone unturned to condemn Israel.
However, later the Islamist outfit blamed an 'Israeli' airstrike for the death of the head of the Palestinian militant group's political bureau and said that Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran."
Who was Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas chief killed in Iran?
The prominent Palestinian political figure Ismail Haniyeh was born in 1963 in Gaza's Shati refugee camp. In is early life, he attended United Nations-run schools and later pursued graduation from the Islamic University of Gaza in Arabic literature in 1987.
He led an Islamist student association affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood before building association with Hamas. He actively took part in the sustained series of protests called the 'First Intifada' staged by the Palestinians and was given a prison sentence by an Israeli military court.
Later, after his release, Haniyeh faced a deportation to Lebanon with senior Hamas leaders by the Israeli military authorities of the occupied Palestinian territories.
In 1997, Haniyeh was appointed as the head the Hamas office following the release of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin. In December 2005, Haniyeh was elected to head the Hamas list, which won the Legislative Council elections the following month.
In 2006, Haniyeh was elected as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority government following Hamas's victory in the legislative election before he was dismissed from his position by President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 which deepened the Hamas-Fatah conflict. However, his reign continued in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas established a de facto administration
During his return from his official trip to Egypt as prime minister in 2006, Haniyeh was stopped at Rafah Border Crossing and was not allowed to enter Gaza. Following his forced attempt to cross the border, an exchange of gunfire took place which left his eldest son wounded and one of his bodyguards dead.
From economic sanctions, and military confrontations with Israel to internal political strife, Haniyeh faced several challenges as Hamas Chief.
In 2017, he was elected as chairman of Hamas's Political Bureau, succeeding Khaled Mashaal. His tenure as the chairman shaped Hamas's policies and strategies, particularly in relation to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
