– family ethnically cleansed from what is now Ashkelon, Israel during the 1948 ethnic cleansing operations, known as the Naqba (the catastrophe)

– born in Al Shati, a refugee camp in Gaza, in 1962, then under Egyptian control, not exactly a lovely place to be born in

– gets to know Hamas at university, like college students all over the world become politically active during their time in college

– plays football as a midfielder

– graduates with a bachelor in Arabic literature 

– he participated in protests during the first Intifada and was arrested by Israel and temporarily exiled to Lebanon

– after his return to Gaza he becomes the dean of the Islamic university there, which like any other university, offers many different study trajectories (sometimes people see the name of the university and think you can only study Islam there)

– becomes very close with Hamas founder Yassin, who is also assassinated along with 9 others, on the 22nd of March 2004, assassinating Palestinian leaders is a long standing Israeli tradition, even though it never seems to help Israel’s cause in anyway, except perhaps to boost morale at home for a short time

– Haniyeh became the Prime Minister after elections were held in 2006, after the rift with Fatah he was the leader of Hamas between 2007 and 2017, then replaced by Sinwar, in 2017 he became the elected chairman of Hamas’s political bureau 

– he repeatedly spoke out in favor of peace and asked for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital

– he said that the US and the EU routinely use financial aid or the withholding thereof as a way to try and manipulate the Palestinians

– Israel tried to assassinate him at least as early as 2003, during an assassination attempt then his hand was injured

– he has three sisters in Israel, some of his family members may have served in the IDF

– A quick search shows how many of his relatives have been killed: ‘In October 2023, fourteen members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on his family home in Gaza City, among them a brother and nephew. In November 2023, a granddaughter of his was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Later that month his eldest grandson was killed in an Israeli strike. Three of his sons and three grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on 10 April 2024. On 25 June 2024, ten members of his family, including his 80-year old sister, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in al-Shati refugee camp’, the birth place of the man.

– he had 13 children, three were killed by Israel in 2024. It’s kind of unlikely none of his surviving children will be killed by Israeli strikes…

– He was rumored to be a millionaire, probably thanks to a 20 percent tax on anything that was smuggled into Gaza via the tunnels. He is thought to have bought lots of houses and beachfront property for his family. That reeks strongly of corruption, but that’s not why he was assassinated of course. Abbas in the West Bank is corrupt and as long as he is a useful puppet he won’t be assassinated. Important to note that all claims he was a millionaire all lead back to pro-Israeli sources and at present it’s not known for sure what he owned and didn’t own, his rumored wealth may be Israeli propaganda

– he travelled a lot and met with foreign leaders, on October 7th he was in Istanbul and held a television address

– as the head of the Hamas politburo it was expected of him to live outside of Gaza, he relocated to Doha, Qatar, just like his predecessor Khaled Mashal (born in 1956 and surprisingly still alive)

– He attended Qassim Suleimani’s funeral, in Tehran, Iran in 2020, the very popular Iranian general assassinated by the US

– he was one of the negotiators, perhaps the top one, trying to broker a deal in the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance. Israel signals it wants peace and often says it’s always wanted peace, but this latest assassination tells a different story

A bit of quick context in the wake of his assassination by Israel in Tehran’s capital. It’s not clear how this could seriously damage the Palestinian cause in any way, but perhaps radical Israelis will feel powerful for a few hours. Oh, by the way this assassination was only possible thanks to American support for Israel

Important to note that he’s just the latest in a almost century long bid to decapitate the Palestinian resistance, a tactic that has never managed to destroy that resistance. Maybe you can’t kill a people’s thirst for freedom