Ismail Haniyeh, leader and fighter

Ismail Haniyeh, leader and fighter
Ismail Haniyeh was born on January 29, 1963 in the "Al-Shati" refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He started his political activity by closely aligning with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, and joined this militant group in the late eighties during the first intifada. He was jailed several times in Israel for his participation in the first intifada before leaving Gaza, and gradually became an important leader of Hamas during his years of activity.
Ismail Haniyeh, who completed his primary and secondary education in Al-Shati Camp in the Gaza Strip and in a school affiliated with UNRWA, completed his high school education in Al-Azhar Religious University and entered the Islamic University of Gaza in 1981 to study Arabic language. He became a member of the Islamic Association of this university upon entering the university, became a member of the university's student council in 1983, and was the president of the university's student council since 1985. The activities that continued led to his membership in the Palestinian resistance groups and finally his exile along with 415 leaders and activists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Marj al-Zohor in southern Lebanon.
He became the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority for the first time in 2006, following the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, and since then he has received international attention. In 2017, he succeeded Khalid Meshaal as the head of Hamas's political bureau, and was immediately declared a wanted terrorist by the United States. Donald Trump's government said that this action was aimed at cutting off his access to international financial resources.
In April, Israeli police arrested one of his sisters on charges of association with members of the movement. Sometime later, his three sons and four grandchildren were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Ismail Haniyeh, who was stationed in Qatar in the last years of his life, was in Iran to participate in the inauguration ceremony of Masoud al-Madikian and to meet with the leader of the Islamic Republic, when he was targeted. Observers say Haniyeh's death has dealt a significant blow to Hamas and raised questions about the future of talks between Israel and Hamas at a time when tensions are flaring in the Middle East over the devastating war in Gaza.

 Translator: faeghe EB