Ismail Haniyeh

His Palestinian parents had become refugees, after they fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Ashkelon, Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Ismail Haniyeh (born 29 January 1962) is a Palestinian politician who is seen as the overall political leader of Hamas, the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau; as of 2023, Haniyeh lives in Qatar.

Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1962.

From 1985 to 1986, he was head of the students' council representing the Muslim Brotherhood.

He also played as a midfielder in the Islamic Association football team.

He graduated at about the same time the First Intifada against the Israeli occupation started in the Gaza Strip.

He participated in protests in First Intifada and was given a short prison sentence by an Israeli military court.

He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he first became involved with Hamas, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Arabic literature in 1987.

He attended United Nations-run schools and graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a degree in Arabic literature in 1987.

While at university, he had become involved with Hamas.

He was detained by Israel again in 1988 and imprisoned for six months.

In 1989, he was imprisoned for three years.

Following his release in 1992, the Israeli military authorities of the occupied Palestinian territories deported him to Lebanon with senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Mahmoud Zahhar, Aziz Duwaik, and 400 other activists.

The activists stayed at Marj al-Zahour in southern Lebanon for over a year, where according to BBC News, Hamas "received unprecedented media exposure and became known throughout the world".

A year later, he returned to Gaza and was appointed dean of the Islamic University.

Appointed to head a Hamas office in 1997, he has since grown in the ranks of the organization.

After Israel released Ahmed Yassin from prison in 1997, Haniyeh was appointed to head his office.

His prominence within Hamas grew due to his relationship with Yassin and he was appointed the representative to the Palestinian Authority.

His position within Hamas continued to strengthen during the Second Intifada due to his relationship with Yassin, and because of the assassinations of much of the Hamas leadership by the Israeli security forces.

He was targeted by the Israel Defense Forces for his alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli citizens.

Following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2003, he was slightly injured on his hand by an Israeli Air Force bomb attack attempting to eliminate the Hamas leadership.

In December 2005, Haniyeh was elected to head the Hamas list, which won the Legislative Council elections the following month.

Haniyeh was head of the Hamas list that won the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006, and so became Prime Minister of the State of Palestine.

Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from 2006 until February 2017, when he was replaced by Yahya Sinwar.

Haniyeh was nominated as prime minister on 16 February 2006 following the Hamas "List of Change and Reform" victory on 25 January 2006.

He was formally presented to president Mahmoud Abbas on 20 February and was sworn in on 29 March 2006.

Israel implemented a series of punitive measures, including economic sanctions, against the Palestinian Authority following the election.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, announced that Israel would not transfer to the Palestinian Authority an estimated $50 million per month in tax receipts that were collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Haniyeh dismissed the sanctions, stating that Hamas would neither disarm nor would it recognize Israel.

Haniyeh expressed regret that Hamas was subjected to punitive measures, adding that "it [Israel] should have responded differently to the democracy expressed by the Palestinian people".

The United States demanded that $50 million in unexpended foreign aid funds for the Palestinian Authority be returned to the United States, which Palestinian Economic Minister Mazen Sonokrot agreed to do.

On the loss of foreign aid from the United States and the European Union, Haniyeh commented that: "The West is always using its donations to apply pressure on the Palestinian people."

Several months after Hamas' 2006 election victory, Haniyeh sent a letter to US President Bush, in which he called on the "American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government", offered a long-term truce with Israel, while accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and urged an end to the international boycott, claiming that it would "encourage violence and chaos".

The U.S. government did not respond and maintained its boycott.

An agreement with Abbas was to have been reached to stop Abbas's call for new elections.

On 20 October 2006, on the eve of this deal to end factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas, Haniyeh's convoy came under gunfire in Gaza and one of the cars was set on fire.

President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah–Hamas conflict, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued to exercise prime ministerial authority in the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh succeeded Khaled Mashaal's head leadership of Hamas in elections held in 2016.

On 6 May 2017, Haniyeh was elected chairman of Hamas's Political Bureau, replacing Khaled Mashaal; at the time, Haniyeh relocated from Gaza to Qatar.

Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.