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Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader recently killed in Iran, was known for his role in the group's international diplomacy amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where he lost three sons in an Israeli airstrike.
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader recently killed in Iran, was known for his role in the group’s international diplomacy amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where he lost three sons in an Israeli airstrike.
Although he was seen as a moderate compared to more hardline members of Hamas, Haniyeh, appointed leader in 2017, traveled between Turkey and Qatar to bypass Gaza’s blockades and engage in ceasefire negotiations and discussions with allies like Iran.
Following Hamas’s October 7 raid, Ismail Haniyeh declared on Al Jazeera that the normalization agreements between Arab states and Israel would not resolve the conflict. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has resulted in over 35,000 deaths in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
Ismail Haniyeh, who left Gaza in 2017, was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, a hardliner with a history of imprisonment in Israel. Haniyeh, seen as the political and diplomatic face of Hamas, maintained strong ties with hardline members and played a key role in negotiating with Arab states and Iran.
He was instrumental in Hamas’s political strategy and helped transition the group into political leadership, becoming Palestinian Prime Minister in 2006 after Hamas won the parliamentary elections.
