The Portrait

Who was Ismail Haniyeh, intransigent but pragmatic leader of Hamas

Ismail Haniyeh had given a political dimension to Hamas without ever disavowing its military actions

31 July 2024

Un recente incontro tra il presidente iraniano Ebrahim Raisi, poi deceduto in un incidente aereo, e il leader politico di Hamas Ismail Haniyeh

3' min read

From our correspondent

NEW DELHI - Ismail Haniyeh was the tough but also dialogue face of Hamas' international diplomacy during the Gaza war. But despite his often incendiary rhetoric, many diplomats saw him as a moderate compared to the more intransigent members of the Iran-backed group inside Gaza.

Appointed to lead Hamas in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and the Qatari capital, Doha, escaping travel restrictions imposed by Gaza Strip and acting as a negotiator with Iran and in ceasefire talks. "All the normalisation agreements that you (Arab states) signed with Israel will not end this conflict," Haniyeh declared toAl Jazeera shortly after the 7 October attack. Israel's response to those 1,200 casualties was a military campaign that to date - according to the territory's health authorities - has cost the lives of more than 35,000 Gaza residents.

Three of Haniyeh's sons - Hazem, Amir and Mohammad - were killed on 10 April when an Israeli airstrike hit the car in which they were travelling. In that same attack, Haniyeh also lost four of his grandchildren, three girls and a boy. Haniyeh has always rejected Israeli claims that his children were fighters with the group, and when asked if their killing would have an impact on the truce talks, he said that 'the interests of the Palestinian people come first'. Despite the harsh language in public, Arab diplomats and officials saw him as relatively pragmatic compared to the more intransigent voices inside Gaza, where Hamas' military arm had planned the 7 October attack.

While telling the Israeli army that they would be "drowning in the sands of Gaza", he and his predecessor at the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal , had travelled to the region for talks on a cessfire agreement brokered by Qatar, which included the exchange of hostages for Palestinians in Israeli jails and more aid for Gaza. Israel considers the entire Hamas leadership to be terrorists.

But it is unclear how much Haniyeh knew about the 7 October assault. The plan, prepared by the military council in Gaza, was such a well-kept secret that some Hamas officials seemed shocked by its scope. However, Haniyeh, a Sunni Muslim, has played an important role in the development of Hamas' fighting capabilities, in part by cultivating ties with Shia Muslim Iran, which makes no secret of its support for the group. During the decade that Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Israel accused his team of helping to divert humanitarian aid to the group's military arm.

Uccisi in un raid a Gaza tre figli del leader di Hamas Haniyeh

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

As a young man, Haniyeh was a student activist at the Islamic University of Gaza City. He joined Hamas when the movement was born during the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987.

Haniyeh became a protégé of the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin , who, like Haniyeh's family, was a refugee from the village of Al Jura near Ashkelon. In 1994, he told Reuters that Yassin was a role model for young Palestinians, saying: 'We learned from him the love of Islam and sacrifice for this Islam and not to kneel before these tyrants and despots'. In 2003 he was a trusted associate of Yassin, photographed in the elderly leader's home in Gaza as he held a telephone to the ear of the almost completely paralysed Hamas founder so that he could participate in a conversation. Yassin was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

Gaza, Hamas verso il no all'accordo sulla tregua

Haniyeh was a forerunner of Hamas' entry into politics. In 1994, he said that forming a political party 'would allow Hamas to deal with new developments'. Initially opposed by the Hamas leadership, he was later supported, so Haniyeh became Palestinian prime minister after the group won parliamentary elections in 2006, a year after the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza.

In 2012, when asked whether Hamas had abandoned the armed struggle, Haniyeh replied 'of course not' and said that the resistance would continue 'in all forms - popular, political, diplomatic and military'.

Marco MasciagaCorrispondente da New Delhi
- LinkedIn
Luogo: New Delhi
Lingue parlate: Italiano, inglese
Argomenti: Asia del Sud
Scheda autore
Trust project