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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem

What’s next for Hamas after political leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination?

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal hugs senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in late 2012.
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal (left) has been tipped to take over from Ismail Haniyeh (right). Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

The assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, at a safehouse during a visit to the Iranian capital Tehran, is a severe blow to the Palestinian Islamist movement, which has been engaged in intense fighting with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since it attacked Israel on 7 October.

Haniyeh is far from the first senior Hamas figure to be repeatedly targeted and eventually killed by Israel. The movement’s founder and spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, and military commander Salah Shehadeh were all assassinated by precision airstrikes inside the Palestinian enclave in the 2000s. Ahmed al-Jabari, who spearheaded Hamas’s 2007 takeover of Gaza, was killed by a drone strike in Gaza City in 2012.

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