Ammon News - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of the morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group said on Wednesday, drawing fears of wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Haniyeh had long served as the head of Hamas’ politburo, and was seen as a moderate figure within the movement, one whose role had become vital in sustained diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2017.

He was elected as the head of the political wing in 2017, before leaving Gaza for exile in Qatar two years later. From exile he became the face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy, shuttling between Turkey, Iran and Qatar, joining a group of Hamas leaders sheltering in Doha and unable to return to Gaza. Even so, Haniyeh was seen as a key line of communication with hardline figures like Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.

Haniyeh was born in 1963 in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp. While at university in Gaza, he joined a political group that was a precursor to Hamas, becoming active in local politics and at protests.

He joined Hamas when it was created in the first Palestinian intifada in 1987 and was arrested and imprisoned on a number of occasions by Israel. He was exiled in 1992 with other Hamas leaders, but returned to Gaza a year later.

Haniyeh became a protege of Hamas’ founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and by 2003 he was a trusted aide to him.

Haniyeh was an early advocate of the group’s political agenda and in 2006, he became Palestinian prime minister after Hamas won the most seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections. He was dismissed by Abbas in 2007 after Israel withdrew from Gaza and Hamas took control.

In 2007, Haniyeh was instrumental in the freeing of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza and held for 16 weeks by a local Islamist group.

He ruled Gaza until 2017, when he was elected head of Hamas’ political bureau.

When he left Gaza in 2017, Haniyeh was succeeded by Sinwar, a hardliner who spent more than two decades in Israeli prisons and whom Haniyeh had welcomed back to Gaza in 2011 after a prisoner exchange.

Since 2017, Haniyeh has been described as the political and diplomatic front of Hamas. He has been engaged in building diplomatic relations with other powers across the Middle East.

The Guardian