Ismail Haniyeh: Who was the Hamas leader killed in Tehran ? What we know about his death

While in Iran for the inauguration of the new president, Hamas leader Ismaë Haniyeh was killed by an Israeli strike this Wednesday, July 31, in a raid carried out against his residence & ;agrave; Tehran.

The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed this Wednesday, July 31, around 2 a.m., in Tehran, Iran, in a strike attributed to Israel. Since the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, he had become Jerusalem's number one target. “The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic resistance of Hamas, was hit at Tehran, and as a result of this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said this morning in a statement on Sepah.

Information confirmed by Hamas: “Our brother, the leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist raid on his headquarters in Tehran after his participation in the inauguration of the new Iranian president.” Indeed, Ismail Haniyeh was present in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of the new president Massoud Pezeshkian. The Palestinian Islamist movement says the act “would not go unpunished.” Iran has announced that it is opening an investigation, the results of which will be announced later today.

Ismail Haniyeh joins Hamas in 2009

Ismail Haniyeh began his activism in the student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood at the Islamic University of Gaza, before becoming a member of the Islamic University's student union in 1983 and 1984. In 2009, he joined Hamas when the first Intifada broke out, which lasted until 1993. He was then imprisoned in several times by Israel and expelled for 6 months to the south of Lebanon.

It was in 2006 that the general public really discovered him, when he became Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, after a rather unexpected victory for his party in the legislative elections. For a time at the head of a unity government, a civil war broke out in 2007 between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Defeated in the following legislative elections, the Palestinian Islamist movement then took power in the Gaza Strip after violent clashes, under the leadership of Ismail Haniyeh. Cohabitation with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah was short-lived. Hamas did not hesitate to expel it from the Gaza Strip, in 2007. Ten years later, in 2017, Ismail Haniyeh was elected head of Hamas' political bureau. Since then, he has been living in exile between Qatar and Turkey until his last days.

Hamas remains led by its military wing

While Ismail Haniyeh's death is a huge blow to Hamas, it is hard to imagine the movement giving up. The Palestinian Islamist movement has shown in the past that it is capable of recovering after the death of a leader, such as that of Sheikh Yassin. Moreover, Hamas is not led by its political wing, but by its military wing. In fact, the organization's main thinkers, hidden underground in tunnels in Gaza, are still alive. Examples include Mohamed Deif and Yahya Sinwar. If Israel has undeniably sent a message by getting rid of Ismail Haniyeh, the reprisals could be at least as bloody.

For the Iranian mullahs, this event is experienced as a real humiliation. The Iranians can legitimately question their own security, while their highest authorities are themselves threatened. The death of the Hamas leader could now lead to a swift and sharp reaction from Tehran and its regional allies. As a reminder, a few hours before the announcement of Hanyieh's death, a senior Hezbollah leader was also killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut. The escalation does not seem ready to stop.