Fatima Abdulkarim & Mohammed R. Mhawish
+972 Magazine / August 1, 2024
The assassinated leader was a proponent of Hamas’ political engagement and pursued Palestinian reconciliation at home and in exile, admirers say.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ top political leader, was killed in Tehran during the early hours of July 31. A general strike was observed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, while the news of Haniyeh’s death sparked widespread grief in the Gaza Strip — at a time when hope for a ceasefire ran high. Though it has not officially claimed responsibility, it is widely assumed that Israel was responsible for the killing.
For many Palestinians, Haniyeh’s assassination extinguishes any possibility of ending the war with Israel in the near term, and highlights Israel’s disregard for political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the months-long calamity. And while support for political factions, including Hamas, varies among Palestinians, there is a strong impression that Haniyeh will be widely remembered as a genuine defender of his people’s right to live in dignity.
“Haniyeh was a son of this land, and throughout his political life, he fought against Israel’s injustices toward his people,” said Iman Hajjaj, a 27-year-old Palestinian teacher and mother of two from Gaza City. Hajjaj added that she and her family are proud to have supported the “humble yet determined leader, who aspired for the full liberation of all Palestinians enduring Israel’s decades-long occupation.”
Ahmed Sheikh Ali, a 30-year-old activist and journalist from Nuseirat refugee camp, told +972 that Haniyeh rose to power from among the people and “solely served his home city and land.” The fact that the political leader was killed on foreign soil does not diminish the reality that “he was connected through the struggle with his people of Gaza and Palestine, sharing their cause in exile and the pursuit of justice worldwide.”
“He and his comrades fought for us on the political scene outside Palestine, while their military fighters uphold the same message through armed resistance against the enemy in Gaza,” Sheikh Ali added.
Musbah Abo Shbana, a 43-year-old resident of Rafah now displaced in Deir al-Balah, said the targeting of Haniyeh complicates the future of Palestinians in Gaza, as he led the negotiations for a ceasefire. While some may not agree that his faction’s political endeavors were effective, they still believe he was “one of the few faithful symbols” of Palestinian leaders in the history of their cause.
Pushing for political action
Growing up in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Haniyeh was exposed from an early age to the political and social challenges of life under occupation, according to people who were close to him. His family was originally from the village of Al Jura, near what is today the Israeli city of Ashkelon, before they were expelled by Zionist forces during the Nakba.
In late 1987, during a period of heightened political activity in the occupied territories and the onset of the First Intifada, Haniyeh, then 24, joined the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) at its inception. His involvement quickly deepened, and in 1992, Israel deported Haniyeh to Marj al-Zohour in southern Lebanon along with other Hamas leaders. This event solidified his status as a key figure within the movement.
Haniyeh was an early proponent of Hamas engaging in the Palestinian political scene, in parallel to the armed activities of its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, which had led Israel and Western governments to designate the group as a “terrorist organization.” He helped to build up Hamas’ political bureau, and encouraged it to participate in elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other local bodies.
Following Hamas’ victory in the 2006 legislative elections, Haniyeh became the prime minister of a Palestinian unity government, with Mahmoud Abbas elected as president. This position brought him to the forefront of Palestinian politics, but also into conflict with the rival Fatah movement, which until then had dominated the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The following year, after months of factional quarrels and international sanctions against Hamas’ presence in the government, Hamas and Fatah split and the former seized power in Gaza, a violent upheaval in which 161 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded.
“Over the years, this division and its complications grew deeper,” a Hamas official from the West Bank, who asked not to be named for their safety, told +972. “Haniyeh was known inside the movement as a persistent advocate for reconciliation and national unity efforts with Fatah. He always insisted on having harmony among all the Palestinian factions, not just Fatah.”
Haniyeh also played a pivotal role in strengthening Hamas’ relations with regional powers such as Qatar, Turkey, and Iran. “His diplomatic efforts aimed to garner support for the Palestinian cause and bolster Hamas’ position within the region,” the Hamas official explained, noting that in recent months, “Haniyeh was known for his direct involvement and flexibility toward reaching a ceasefire.”
From the streets of Al-Shati
Jamal Zaqout, an independent Palestinian politician from Gaza who grew up with Haniyeh, wrote a tribute to the Hamas leader on Facebook. Zaqout described him as “the child of Al-Shati refugee camp, a childhood friend, a patriotic man” — shortly before his account was deactivated. This aligns with reports that Meta has been deleting posts and shutting down accounts deemed to be praising Haniyeh.
“The refugee camp was our big family — we lived a few meters away from each other. Ismail was truly a humble person, even from his early years,” Zaqout told +972.
As a student at the Islamic University of Gaza in 1983, Haniyeh led a demonstration in support of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat while the latter was under siege by the Syrian army and pro-Syrian factions in Tripoli in Lebanon, Zaqout recalled. This was an early indication of Haniyeh’s interest and commitment to the Palestinian national movement.
When he joined Hamas, Zaqout explained, “Haniyeh’s political approach was to localize the party, transforming it from an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood into a Palestinian faction.”
After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Arafat asked Zaqout to set up a meeting with Haniyeh to gauge Hamas’ position towards the newly established PA, and to encourage the Islamist movement not to challenge it. “I was surprised by Ismail’s flexibility, which warmed Arafat’s heart,” Zaqout said.
Zaqout noted that Haniyeh was one of the few Hamas leaders who tried to participate in the 1996 legislative elections, though the movement boycotted them. Haniyeh froze his Hamas membership and was preparing to launch a new political group, called the Salvation Party, but internal pressure led him to backtrack. The move was understood to be a political tactic, rather than a revolt or division within the Hamas movement.
When Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was released from Israeli prison in 1997, Haniyeh returned to his previous role as the top leader’s confidant and worked as his bureau chief in Gaza for years. In 2017, Haniyeh was elected as the head of Hamas’ political bureau writ large, succeeding Khaled Mashal. Haniyeh served in this role in exile, from Doha in Qatar.
“We met again in 2013,” recalled Zaqout, “in the same house he grew up in Al-Shati, which was the only home he had in Palestine until it was destroyed during this war. Back then, he was very concerned about the impact of the siege that was imposed on Gaza, and the need to strike a serious national unity deal.”
‘Targeting him undermines the will for Palestinian unity’
Though in exile, Haniyeh continued to be directly impacted by Israel’s onslaught in Gaza personally as much as politically. Since the start of the war, around a dozen of Haniyeh’s family members — including his three sons, grandchildren, and his sister — have been killed by Israeli attacks on their residences in Al-Shati refugee camp.
In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Haniyeh — along with Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and military commander Mohammed Deif — on suspicions of war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel. Khan also named as suspects Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for suspected crimes during the military assault on Gaza.
In one of his final statements before his assassination in Tehran, Haniyeh called for August 3 to be a day of global solidarity “to support the people of Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.” Upon his death, President Abbas, who condemned the killing as a “cowardly act and a dangerous development,” declared a day of mourning and for flags to be flown at half-mast.
“The last time I met [Haniyeh] was last March in Doha,” Zaqout lamented, “where he expressed to me his keenness on achieving a ceasefire, as well as a national reconciliation deal.
“Haniyeh was a common denominator, especially since the 2014 war,” Zaqout continued. “I believe that targeting him — like Sheikh Yassin and [Saleh] Arouri [a senior Hamas commander killed in Lebanon in January] — undermines the will for Palestinian unity.”
Bassam Salhi, secretary general of the socialist Palestinian People’s Party, said that the assassination of Haniyeh represents Israel’s response to the ceasefire talks. “This is a message that Israel doesn’t want to see a deal happen,” he argued, stressing that Haniyeh’s personal qualities as a pragmatic and flexible negotiator meant that Netanyahu has no interest in reaching a solution.
“The general consensus in Beijing [where 14 Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah, signed a declaration of unity on July 23] was undoubtedly an important point that allows unity to form much stronger this time, at a time when the Palestinians face a grave situation,” Salhi continued.
It was therefore incumbent on the parties, Salhi stressed, to channel the Beijing agreement into a broader political framework, with a rebuilt political system based on national unity, that would pursue independence beyond the confines of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority — the very vision that Haniyeh agreed upon.
Fatima AbdulKarim is a journalist based in Ramallah
Mohammed R. Mhawish is a Palestinian journalist and writer based in Gaza. He is a contributor to the book A Land With A People — Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism (Monthly Review Press Publication, 2021)
