War , this is war... The death of Ismail Haniya raised the issue of a new leader of Hamas. Two previous leaders , including founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, died, while one almost miraculously survived. What you need to know to understand the prospects of the movement.

Sheikh Ahmad Yasin

The spiritual leader and one of the founders of Hamas joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1955. From the Palestinian branch of this international organization emerged the Islamic Resistance Movement - HAMAS , fighting against Israel in the Gaza Strip during the First Intifada in the late 1980s .

Yasin was first arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1984. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for activities against the state and possession of weapons. However, a year later, he was released as a result of the so -called "Jibril deal".

Three Israeli soldiers captured in the 1982 Lebanon War were exchanged for 1,150 Palestinian prisoners.

In 1989, the sheikh, who had lost half of his eyesight, was arrested again. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition against Israel.

The story of his second liberation is no less legendary than the first. In 1997, Israeli intelligence services launched a covert operation in Jordan to eliminate one of the leaders of H AMAS and the head of its bureau in the country, Khalid Mash al . The plan failed and the agents were arrested.

To resolve the conflict , the Israelis were forced to release Yasin. Sheikh was deported to Jordan and from there to the Palestinian Authority - he returned to Gaza, where he was born and lived for many years.

Sheikh Ahmad Yasin / Photo: Cool-Readers

Israel tried to kill Yasin again after 6 years. In the summer of 2003, an operation was conducted against H AMAS leaders. However, even in this attack, the sheikh survived.

On March 22, 2004, Yasin was killed while leaving a mosque in a wheelchair in the Gaza Strip. As a result of a rocket launched from an Israeli helicopter. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally supervised the operation and congratulated the security forces on their success. Three people with the leader of Hamas were killed in the attack, ten people were injured.

Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi

The Sheikh's successor as leader of H AMAS was Abd al-Aziz al-Ranti. Before that, he was an influential member of the movement's political wing (unofficially, also jang chi ). He was considered an ideologue of resistance, Ahmad Yasin listened to him seriously.

Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi / Photo: AP

The first attempt on his life took place on June 10, 2003 - before he became the head of H AMAS. His car was attacked by an Israeli helicopter, killing his bodyguard and 1 passenger, but Ranti himself survived.

On March 27, 2004, after the death of Yassin, the politician addressed the Palestinians, saying that Allah is helping the Palestinians in their fight against Israel, and the United States is supporting him, and called the people to fight for jihad no matter what. "We all deserve to die. " One is from a heart attack, and the other is from a rocket fired by an Israeli Apache," he said.

Rantisi was killed on April 17, 2004 in Gaza during a special operation by the Israeli armed forces - he did not even serve a month as the leader of H AMAS.

His eldest son and his bodyguard were also killed by a rocket from an Israeli helicopter. Ahmed Yasin's successor was seriously injured and died in the hospital.

Sharon reiterated what she said after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's assassination: "The elimination of terrorist leaders will continue."

Survivor Khalid Mashal

Khalid Mashal joined the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of 15. From 1996, he headed the Political Bureau of Hamas, but was not considered the leader of the movement at that time. In this position, which gained importance after Rantisi's assassination, M a shal succeeded Musa Abu Marzouz, who was arrested during a visit to the USA in 1995 (he was released in 1997 and has since been part of the leadership of the political wing in the USA).

Khalid Mashal's name first became known to the world after the failed attempt on his life and the release of Sheikh Yasin. The operation was carried out with the permission of the Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On September 25, 1997, Mossad agents poured poison into the ear of the head of the Jordanian branch of Hamas on a street in Amman, but were caught by the politician's bodyguards. King Hussein participated in his rescue. At his request, Israel provided an antidote and released 19 Palestinian prisoners, including the movement's spiritual leader. In return, the murderers who entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports were freed from punishment and released to their homeland.

Meanwhile, two years later, Hamas was banned from the country by the new King Abdullah II .

After Rantisi was killed, Mashal ordered the names of the leaders of the movement not to be revealed. It was clear that Israel would continue to try to destroy them.

In other words, Tel Aviv is waging a full-scale war to destroy H AMAS. This strategy has not stopped yet . Any member of the organization, especially the official leader , understands well that he is punished , lives and acts accordingly.

For them, the threat of death is a matter of time and circumstances. As in war...

Ismail Ha niya

Ismail Haniya is one of the founders of Hamas. He was Sheikh Yasin's personal secretary and did all the organizational work. In 2006-2007, he headed the government of the Palestinian National Authority. Hania personally led the "Changes and Reforms" list that won the parliamentary elections.

In 2017, he held the position of head of the political bureau of Hamas . The following year , the US State Department declared him a global terrorist.

In 2003, Haniya was injured in an Israeli air attack. He survived the assassination on October 20 , 2006. At that time , his motorcade was fired upon in the Gaza Strip. Fatah fighters , who were in sharp conflict with Hamas at that time , were blamed for the incident.

The politician served two sentences in Israeli prisons in 1980 and 1990.

The details of his death are still unclear , and there are many rumors, speculations and conspiracy theories about it . On the day of his death, July 31, 2024, the building was first reported to have been attacked by a rocket. It was later revealed that it was a guided bomb.

Ismail Haniya / Photo: FairySoft

"Hania was killed in an explosion carried out by Zionists in Tehran," Hamas said in a statement.

The politician could have been tracked using a leaked WhatsApp message (such as the popular and notorious Pegasus), noted Arab journalist Elaija Mane.

Meanwhile, according to an investigation by The New York Times, the head of the Hamas political bureau was killed by an explosive device as soon as he arrived in his room.

The bomb was secretly planted about 2 months ago. The hotel itself is managed and guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , part of a larger complex known as Neshat in an exclusive area north of Tehran.

On April 10 of this year, as a result of a joint operation of the Israeli military and intelligence services, a car with three sons and four grandchildren of the leader of Hamas was destroyed in an attack on the Gaza Strip. During Eid -ul-Fitr , Ha Niya's other grandson was injured and later died in the hospital.

Mashal again?

According to the mass media, Khaled Mashal , who has become one of the leaders of the movement abroad in recent years, will return to the position of the head of the political bureau of Hamas . It was he who led the negotiators who had indirect contact with Israel regarding the agreement with the hostages and prisoners in Gaza.

Mashal 's relations with Iran are believed to be strained because of his support for the uprising against Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad. In February 2012, he left Damascus and moved to Qatar. At the moment, experts of the region emphasize that this issue is not relevant at the moment .

HAMAS - The idea of resistance

Actually, it doesn't really matter who is appointed as head of the Politburo. This position , like all government positions in Hamas, is only representative ( embassy ) . Who runs the organization is kept secret and is not known for sure (at least from public sources). In the mid - 2000s, "Mashal" introduced such a procedure.

At one time, one of its founders, Mahmoud al-Zahar, was considered the real leader of Hamas. His eldest son was killed in 2003 during a failed assassination attempt on a politician by the Israeli Air Force, and another in January 2008 in fighting with the invaders in Gaza. He himself has visited Israeli prisons several times.

The action may be directed by the council . Here it should be taken into account that the military wing of H AMAS has always had great autonomy. Its foreign offices are not always in close contact with the Gaza administration due to the risk of detection by Israeli intelligence services. This situation was especially intensified after the beginning of a large-scale invasion of the sector in October 2023.

Moreover, Hamas is primarily an idea that encourages resistance to the Israeli occupation and expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland, a high level of grassroots activity and a desire to survive in difficult conditions.

In such an order, in the absence of prospects for making fundamental decisions on the Palestinian issue and creating a Palestinian state, it is unlikely that the change of people who perform more symbolic tasks in the leadership of the organization will change anything seriously. Others immediately replaced some of them. Even the assassination of charismatic and undeniably influential figures in the movement, such as Ahmed Yassin, gave Israel nothing more than loud messages to the far-right electorate - as Hamas grew stronger over the years.

Source: Yeni Şafak