Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has died in an Israeli attack in Iran, the latest in a series of killings of senior members of the militant organisation since the 7 October massacre in Israel.
Haniyeh was staying at a building for war veterans in the Iranian capital of Tehran when an “airborne guided projectile” hit his residence around 2am Wednesday local time (11.30pm Tuesday BST), according to Iranian media.
A statement from Hamas said: “The head of the movement was killed in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president.”
Haniyeh, 62, was Hamas’s chief political leader and seen by many diplomats as “moderate” compared to the group’s most extreme hardliners, proving integral to peace talks with Israel. Three of his sons and three grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip in April.
The killing is considered a major blow to the ceasefire negotiations and comes as the death toll in Gaza since 7 October stands at 39,363, according to the enclave’s health ministry. The Israeli state is unclear about how many of these deaths were Hamas operatives or innocent civilians.
Murad Abu Murad
The head of Hamas’s air force, 45, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on 13 October.
The Israeli military claimed Murad, a commander and chief of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ air operations, “took a big part in directing terrorists during the massacre” that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October.
Israel attacked the headquarters of Hamas’s aerial activities, leading to the death of Murad and other targets, including individuals the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said were operatives in the “Nukhba” special forces unit of the Al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’s military wing.
Ali Qadhi
Qadhi was commander of the Nukhba special forces unit and was involved in planning the 7 October attacks, according to the IDF.
Qadhi was arrested for kidnapping and killing Israeli businessman Sasson Nuriel and sentenced to life in prison in 2005, but was released during the 2011 prisoner exchange.
The IDF killed him in a drone strike on 14 October.
Osama Mazini
Mazini, 57, was a former senior Palestinian leader and Hamas’s one-time chief hostage negotiator.
In this role, he was in charge of handling the case of Gilad Shalit during the soldier’s five years of captivity, before he was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.
Following this, Mazini was the head of Hamas’s Shura Council and a Hamas education minister.
The IDF reported it killed him in an airstrike on 16 October, with the Israeli air force claiming he had “directed terrorist activities against Israel”.
Saleh al-Arouri
The deputy Hamas leader and founding commander of Al-Qassam Brigades, Arouri was killed in January after an IDF drone strike on his office in Beirut, Lebanon.
Two security sources said the strike had targeted a meeting between Hamas officials and Lebanon’s Sunni Islamist Jama’a Islamiya faction and left four Palestinians and three Lebanese dead.
The strike marked the first targeted assassination of a Hamas official outside Palestinian Territories since the Palestinian group’s assault on Israeli territory on 7 October.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Arouri’s death, referring to him as Hamas’s “number four.”
“We already eliminated number four in Hamas. Three, two, and one are on the way,” he said. “They are all dead men. We will reach them all,” he added.
Arouri was deputy head of Hamas’s politburo and led the Al-Qassam Brigades from exile in Syria, Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon after prolonged stints in Israeli prisons.
Marwan Issa
The 59-year-old was deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 10 March that left five people dead in the Al-Nuseirat camp.
Issa was born in the Bureij area of central Gaza in 1965 after his family fled what is now Israel during the Nakba in 1948. He was jailed by Israel for five years during the first Palestinian intifada in 1987, and later detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the second intifada in 2000, according to local media.
Upon his release, Issa became known as “Shadow Man” after surviving at least three Israeli attempts to kill him – in 2006, 2014 and 2021 – while remaining out of public sight and rarely giving interviews, before becoming the deputy commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Hamas leaders Israel may target next
Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has been described as a “dead man walking” by Mr Netanyahu.
IDF spokesperson Richard Hecht called him the “face of evil” and “mastermind” of the 7 October attacks.
Sinwar, 61, was previously seen as someone that Israel could do business with by much of the security establishment, having overseen a period of relative calm and a series of economic agreements with the Israeli government.
The leader of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, is among the most mysterious senior Hamas figures, and the most wanted by Israel.
Deif – known as “the guest”, a translation of his name in Arabic – has rarely been seen in public. There are only a handful of photographs showing his face.
The commander is credited with forming the Al-Qassam brigades shortly after Hamas was established in 1987.
Israeli authorities hold him responsible for a series of bombings inside Israel that killed dozens of people during the 90s.
Deif has survived several assassination attempts, one of which reportedly killed his brother in 2014. He was said to have lost an eye in another.
