A Look at the Life of Ismail Haniyeh: From Captivity to Martyrdom

According to SAEDNEWS, Officials and leaders of the Hamas movement reacted to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of this movement, stating that they are willing to pay any price for the liberation of Jerusalem and have entered an all-out war to free the city.

They also emphasized that the assassination of the Hamas political bureau chief will not go unanswered.

Ismail Haniyeh was born on May 23, 1963, in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, where his parents were displaced after the Nakba day in 1948 (the day the Palestinian people were uprooted from their historical homeland of Palestine in Ashkelon).

He graduated with a degree in Arabic literature from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1987 and later obtained a doctorate from the same university in 2009.

Political Activities

Ismail Haniyeh began his political activities in the "Islamic Party" in the Gaza Strip, which represented the student branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and from which the Islamic Resistance Movement emerged.

Between 1983 and 1984, he worked as a member of the student council at the Islamic University of Gaza, eventually becoming president of the student council the following year.

In 1989, Haniyeh was imprisoned for three years by the Israeli occupation authorities and was then exiled along with a group of Hamas leaders to the "Marj al-Zuhur" area at the border of Palestine and Lebanon.

After spending a year in exile, he returned to Gaza and was appointed as head of the Islamic University there. In 1997, following his release, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas, appointed him as his chief of staff.

After the martyrdom of Dr. Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader, in 2004 by the Israeli regime, Haniyeh was chosen as the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In December 2005, Haniyeh headed the electoral list of "Change and Reform," which won the majority of seats in the second Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.

On February 16, 2006, Hamas nominated Ismail Haniyeh for the position of Palestinian Prime Minister, and he was appointed on February 20 of the same month.

In May 2017, he was elected as the head of the political bureau of Hamas, succeeding Khaled Mashal.

Haniyeh has survived several assassination attempts, the last of which occurred in 2003 when Israeli fighter jets targeted a group of resistance leaders following a martyrdom operation by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Al-Aqsa Storm

Immediately after the launch of "Al-Aqsa Storm" operation by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Ismail Haniyeh appeared in a video showing him in his office in Doha, Qatar, following a report from the fighters of the Al-Qassam Brigades, in which the Hamas fighters had taken control of Israeli military vehicles.

On April 10, seven members of Ismail Haniyeh’s family, including three sons and several grandchildren, were martyred in an Israeli bombing that targeted their vehicle in the Al-Shati camp. They had gone there to congratulate the residents on Eid al-Fitr.

Additionally, ten family members of Haniyeh, including his sister, were martyred on June 24 when their home in the Al-Shati camp in the western Gaza Strip was bombed by the Israeli army.

Haniyeh commented on this incident, stating that the blood of his sister "Um Nahed" and her children and grandchildren has mingled with the blood of the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and in all places where the Palestinian people reside.

He stated that they attained martyrdom in a victorious battle and became eternal, adding that their martyrdom only strengthens resistance and steadfastness on the path to victory.

Martyrdom and Victory Are Our Dream

Following the news of the martyrdom of his sons and grandchildren, Ismail Haniyeh stated that the blood of his martyred sons and grandchildren is no more precious than the blood of the Palestinian people. He expressed his gratitude to God for granting him the martyrdom of his three sons and some of his grandchildren.

In his speech in 2014, addressing the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, he told Israeli officials: "We are a people, if your decision is siege, our decision is victory, and if your decision is to kneel Gaza and its people, our decision is to bow only before God."

Haniyeh continued: "All decision-makers inside and outside Palestine should receive the message of this people: we are a people who love martyrdom as much as our enemies love worldly life. We love martyrdom for that which our leaders sacrificed their lives for; those who are in love with the seat (office), should remove all seats and leave our homeland for us."