Hamas political boss Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Wednesday, after the building where he was staying was struck in an attack that the Palestinian group blamed on Israel.
The group said that Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike” on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. His death comes a day after Israel targeted Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
The assassination comes amid Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, in which more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, when Hamas fighters entered southern Israel in an assault during which 1,139 were killed, and 250 people were taken captive.
Iran has said it is investigating the killing. Israel has yet to comment. But after October 7, Israeli officials had publicly threatened that senior Hamas leaders were on its kill list. In recordings made public on December 4, 2023, the chief of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, said that the country would kill Hamas leaders “in every location, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone”.
Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran also follows a long pattern of assassinations of Palestinian leaders, from Rome to Paris, Beirut to Athens, and from Gaza to Tunis. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for the killings — though it usually also does not deny its role. And analysts are convinced that these assassinations bear Israel’s stamp, stretching over more than half a century.
Here are other leaders killed over the decades:
Saleh al-Arouri | January 2024, Beirut, Lebanon
Al-Arouri, 57, was the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau and one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was assassinated in a drone strike in a suburb of Beirut.
He had been living in exile in Lebanon after spending 15 years in an Israeli jail. Before the war began on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him.
Israel did not take responsibility for his death. However, Danny Danon, a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, hailed the attack and congratulated the Israeli army, Shin Bet and Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, for killing al-Arouri.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh | January 2010, Dubai, UAE
Al-Mabhouh was a military commander in the Qassam Brigades, responsible for logistics and weapons procurement.
He founded Unit 101, which was dedicated to abducting Israeli fighters. Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai, the attack widely believed to have been carried out by the Mossad. According to police, al-Mabhouh was drugged, electrocuted and then suffocated with a pillow.
Mahmoud al-Majzoub | May 2006, Sidon, Lebanon
Al-Majzoub was a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group (PIJ) and a close ally of the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
He was assassinated in the Lebanese city of Sidon when a car bomb attached to the door of his car door exploded when he opened it.
Israel denied responsibility for the attack, but both PIJ and Hezbollah blamed it for the killing.
Adnan al-Ghul | October 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Al-Ghul was a high-ranking member of the Qassam Brigades, known as “the Father of the Qassam” for his work in building Hamas’s extensive rocket delivery system.
Identified by the Israeli military as a top bomb maker, he was assassinated in a targeted killing, an Israeli Air Force AH-64 helicopter firing missiles at his car in Gaza.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi | April 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Al-Rantisi was one of the seven co-founders of the Hamas movement, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in the early days of the first Intifada.
He had been named as the new leader of Hamas after the killing of Yassin in March 2004.
He was killed by an Israeli helicopter missile strike in Gaza City, less than a month after Yassin’s assassination. The Israel Air Force had fired Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin | March 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Sheikh Yassin was considered the spiritual leader of Hamas. Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had been reliant on a wheelchair due to a sporting accident when he was 16.
He was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile strike as he was being wheeled out of morning prayers outside a Gaza City mosque.
Israeli security sources said at the time that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack against the paralysed cleric.
Salah Shehadeh | July 2002, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Shehadeh was among the founders of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and spent a decade in Israeli jails.
He was killed after the Israeli Air Force bombed his house in Gaza City.
In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed that Shehadeh was the target of the attack, saying that he was behind “hundreds of terror attacks in the last two years against Israeli soldiers and civilians”.
Yahya Ayyash | January 1996, Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip
Ayyash, nicknamed “the Engineer”, was known for his work as a bomb maker and commander of the West Bank battalion of the Qassam Brigades.
He was regarded as responsible for introducing suicide bombings as a strategy against Israel.
Ayyash was assassinated in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya by Shin Bet operatives who placed an explosive device in his phone, detonating it remotely after he received a call from his father.
Imad Akel | November 1993, Shujayea, Gaza Strip
Akel was a commander of the Qassam Brigades, where he served as a mentor to the current commander Mohammed Deif.
He was nicknamed “the Ghost” owing to his use of disguises to launch ambushes on Israeli forces.
In November 1993, Akel had been hiding at his home in Shujayea, which was under siege at the time. After several hours, he tried to escape and was shot by Israeli special forces.
Abu Jihad | April 1988, Tunis, Tunisia
Khalil al-Wazir, known as Abu Jihad, was a key figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — he had helped found Fatah in the late 1950s. For years, he was the effective deputy to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
He was shot dead by Israeli agents in an audacious commando raid in 1988.
Israel denied responsibility for nearly 25 years until 2012, when an Israeli newspaper published an interview with Israeli soldier Nahum Lev, who killed Abu Jihad, eventually revealing the truth.
Khalid Nazzal | June 1986, Athens, Greece
Nazzal was the central committee secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and a leader of the PLO.
Israel held him responsible for the 1974 Ma’alot attack in which Palestinian fighters killed 22 school children and four adults.
He was assassinated by Mossad agents in Athens.
Ali Hassan Salameh | January 1979, Beirut, Lebanon
Salameh founded the Black September armed group that attacked the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics, killing 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer. Five of the attackers also died.
Mossad spies had enrolled at Salameh’s gym to befriend him weeks before his assassination. A British-Israeli operative rented an apartment close to Salameh’s home to monitor his movements.
He was blown up in his car as it passed a booby-trapped parked Volkswagen in Beirut.
Mohamed Boudia | June 1973, Paris, France
Boudia, an Algerian poet and playwright, was a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who had also fought for the liberation of Algeria.
He was assassinated by a car bomb placed under the seat of his car by Mossad agents following the attack by the Black September armed group at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Abdel Wael Zwaiter | October 1972, Rome, Italy
Zwaiter, a Palestinian translator, was a representative of the PLO in Rome.
Israel accused him of being a commander of the Black September armed group that attacked the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
His supporters say he was an intellectual with no conclusive links to the group.
Zwaiter was shot dead by agents in the lobby of his apartment building.
Ghassan Kanafani | July 1972, Beirut, Lebanon
Kanafani, a prominent Palestinian author and poet, was a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
He was assassinated in Beirut along with his 17-year-old niece. A grenade had been connected to the ignition switch of his car. By starting the car, he ignited a plastic bomb that had been planted behind the bumper.
Israel said his killing was in response to the 1972 Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) mass shooting in which 26 people were killed and dozens others were injured.
But some analysts believe the assassination was already being planned well before that.
