Hamas leaders and operatives: assassinations and attempted assassinations

The head of the Hamas Political Bureau, and former Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran early on Wednesday, said the Palestinian resistance movement, drawing fears of wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Israel has sought to show that it can get to anyone, anywhere. It has assassinated or attempted to kill leaders of Hamas and key operatives since the group was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Two years later, Hamas carried out its first attacks on Israeli military targets, including the kidnap and killing of two Israeli soldiers.

Here is a list of Palestinian leaders and operatives who were targeted by the most powerful and sophisticated military in the Middle East.

YAHYA AYYASH

Elusive Islamic militant mastermind behind a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings nicknamed “The Engineer”, was killed in what was then PLO-ruled Gaza on 5 January, 1996, when his mobile phone exploded in his hands. Palestinians blamed Israel, which declined to take responsibility. Hamas retaliated with four suicide attacks that killed 59 people in three Israeli cities over nine days in February and March.

READ: Haniyeh was the pragmatic leader of Hamas

KHALED MESHAAL

Haniyeh’s predecessor as head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khaled Meshaal, became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman.

The hit was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It so enraged Jordan’s then-King Hussein that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers, who were using fake Canadian passports and had been apprehended, and scrapping Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel unless the antidote was handed over.

Israel did so in exchange for the would-be assassins, and also agreed to free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to assassinate him seven years later in Gaza.

AHMED YASSIN

Israel killed the quadriplegic co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in a helicopter missile strike on 22 March, 2004 as he left a mosque in Gaza City in his wheelchair. Israel had attempted to kill him in 2003 while he was at the house of a Hamas member in Gaza.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza shouting calls of revenge and threatened to “send death to every home” in Israel.

His killing led to widespread protests and condemnation from the Palestinian territories and the broader Muslim world, and marked a significant escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, underlining the deep-seated tensions and the challenges of achieving peace in the region.

ABDEL AZIZ AL-RANTISI

An Israeli helicopter missile strike on a car in Gaza City killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi on 17 April, 2004. Two bodyguards were also killed. The Hamas leadership went into hiding and the identity of Rantisi’s successor was kept secret.

His assassination came shortly after he had taken over as leader of the movement in Gaza following the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

ADNAN AL-GHOUL

The Hamas master bomber was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on 21 October, 2004. Al-Ghoul was number two in the military wing of Hamas and was known as the “Father” of the Qassam rocket, a makeshift missile fired into Israeli towns.

NIZAR RAYYAN

A cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas’s most hard-line political leaders, Nizar Rayyan had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Two of his four wives and seven of his children were also killed in the bombing in Jabalia refugee camp on 1 January, 2009. Days later, an Israeli air strike killed Hamas’s interior minister, SAEED SEYYAM, in the Gaza Strip on 15 January. Seyyam was in charge of 13,000 police and security men in the enclave.

MAHMOUD AL-MABHOUH

One of the founders of the Hamas armed wing, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was killed by what was reported to be a “massive electric shock to the head” and then “strangled” in his hotel room in Dubai on 20 January, 2010. It is believed that a team of Israeli Mossad agents carried out the assassination using false “European passports”. Al-Mabhouh was a member of the Hamas Political Bureau when it was based in Damascus.

SALEH AL-AROURI

An Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh killed Deputy Hamas chief Saleh Al-Arouri on 2 January, 2024. Al-Arouri was also a founder of the movement’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades.

ISMAIL HANIYEH

Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, said the Palestinian resistance movement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh’s killing, which happened just hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president. The IRG said it was investigating the attack on the building where he was attacked and killed.

Iranian media reported that this was “a special residence for war veterans in north Tehran.” Iran’s Nour News said that Haniyeh’s residence was hit by an airborne projectile.

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