Hamas leaders and operatives: assassinations and attempted assassinations

DUBAI (Reuters) – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran early on Wednesday, the Palestinian militant group said, drawing fears of wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon. 

Israel has sought to show it can get anyone, anywhere. It has assassinated or attempted to kill leaders of Hamas and key operatives since the group was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Two years later, Hamas carried out its first attacks on Israeli military targets, including the kidnap and killing of two Israeli soldiers.

Here is a list of Palestinian leaders and operatives who were targeted by the most powerful and sophisticated military in the Middle East.

YAHYA AYYASH

Elusive Islamic militant mastermind behind a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings nicknamed “The Engineer”, was killed in then PLO-ruled Gaza. He died on January 5, 1996, when his cellular phone exploded in his hands. Palestinians blamed Israel, which declined to take responsibility. Hamas retaliated in four suicide attacks that killed 59 people in three Israeli cities over nine days in February and March. 

KHALED MESHAAL

Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman. 

The hit, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so enraged Jordan’s then-King Hussein that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers and scrapping Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel unless the antidote was handed over. 

Israel did so, and also agreed to free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to assassinate him seven years later in Gaza.

AHMED YASSIN

Israel killed the quadriplegic co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed, in a helicopter missile strike on March 22, 2004 as he left a mosque in Gaza City. Israel attempted to kill him in 2003 while he was at the house of a Hamas member in Gaza.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza shouting calls of revenge and threatened to “send death to every home” in Israel.

His death led to widespread protests and condemnation from the Palestinian territories and the broader Muslim world marked a significant escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, underlining the deep-seated tensions and the challenges of achieving peace in the region.

ABDEL-AZIZ AL-RANTISI

An Israeli helicopter missile strike on a car in Gaza City killed Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi on April 17, 2004. Two bodyguards were also killed. The Hamas leadership went into hiding and the identity of Rantissi’s successor was kept secret.

His assassination came shortly after he had taken over as Hamas leader in Gaza following the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

ADNAN AL-GHOUL

Hamas master bomber was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Oct. 21, 2004. Ghoul was number 2 in the military wing of Hamas and known as the “Father of the Qassam” rocket, a makeshift missile frequently fired into Israeli towns.

    NIZAR RAYYAN

A cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas’s most hardline political leaders, had called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Two of his four wives and seven of his children were also killed in the bombing in Jabalya refugee camp on January 1, 2009. Days later, an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas’s interior minister, Saeed Seyyam, in the Gaza Strip on January 15. Seyyam was in charge of 13,000 Hamas police and security men.

SALEH AL-AROURI

An Israli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh killed Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri on January 2, 2024. Arouri was also the founder of Hamas military wing, the Qassam Brigades.

ISMAIL HANIYEH

Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group said. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president, and said it was investigating.

Iranian media reported that he was staying at “a special residence for war veterans in north Tehran” Iran’s NourNews said Haniyeh’s residence was hit by an airborne projectile.

(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline)