Who Was Ismail Haniya, the Teacher Who Became the Leader of Hamas?

Ismail Haniya, leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, was assassinated early Wednesday morning in Iran's capital while on an official visit to attend the inauguration of the country's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. But who was Haniya?

The current leader of Hamas, who was re-elected in August 2021 after holding the position since 2017, was born in 1963 in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. Years later, he enrolled at the Islamic University of Gaza, an institution influenced by the religious and political tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood with a predominant anti-Israeli sentiment, where he graduated in Arabic Literature in 1987. That same year, he participated in the Intifada and joined Hamas. He was also detained during the riots and ended up in prison.

It would not be his first time. In 1988, he was imprisoned again and, a year later, shortly after being released, he returned to prison until 1992 to serve a sentence for subversion. Immediately after his release, Israeli authorities deported him to southern Lebanon along with other movement leaders and about 400 activists. In 1993, he returned to Gaza and became dean of the Islamic University. During that period, Hamas gained dramatic notoriety for its military wing's actions in Israeli towns, with frequent suicide bombings targeting markets, buildings full of civilians, or buses. Far from considering them acts of terrorism, the movement labeled these attacks as military resistance operations.

In 2003, Haniya survived an airstrike alongside Hamas' founder and spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who had appointed him head of his office in Gaza, in an Israeli attempt to eliminate both high-ranking Hamas officials. Yassin was considered by the Israeli army as one of the main ideologues behind terrorist attacks. Both leaders, along with another dozen officials, managed to escape unharmed, although Yassin would die a year later in another precise Israeli bombing.

Even so, it wasn't until January 2006—the year Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections—that Haniya began to gain popularity. In fact, during his rise within the hierarchy, he always tried to stay in the background with few public appearances and refrained from making incendiary speeches—a habit that intensified after witnessing Israel's determination to eliminate Hamas' top commanders. Unlike some of his peers, he stood out for a certain moderation that led him to be considered "one of the politicians most open to dialogue with Israel within the Islamist organization."

The victory led him to serve as Palestinian Prime Minister, although not for long. He was dismissed in 2007 by President and Al Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas but continued to govern Gaza after taking control that same year.

Ismail was re-elected as Hamas leader in August 2021, a position he had held since May 2017. The General Council of Shura opted to renew his mandate while also retaining Saleh al Arouri as vice president. One of his roles has been to act like a tightrope walker: he has tried to display pragmatism in an attempt to break the international isolation imposed on the movement without upsetting the hardline faction.

Israel, the United States, and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist group. Ismail tried to convince them of a political shift. In 2017, the organization introduced several amendments to its 1988 Charter. Although it retained its original and certainly extremist spirit to avoid confrontation with its ultra core, Haniya already announced a certain shift towards less radical positions: accepting the creation of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 war borders—something taboo in the original text. Hamas broke ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and faced rejection from Islamic Jihad.