Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran, in the early hours of Wednesday after the building where he was staying was hit in an attack the Palestinian group blamed on Israel.
According to the group, Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike” on his residence in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Massoud Pezeshkian. His death comes a day after Israel targeted Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
The killing 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 that killed 1,139 people and captured 250.
Iran has said it is investigating the killing. Israel has yet to comment. But after October 7, Israeli officials publicly threatened to put senior Hamas leaders on its hit list. In recordings released on December 4, 2023, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, said the country would kill Hamas leaders “everywhere, in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Turkey, Qatar, everywhere.”
Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran is part of a long series of assassinations of Palestinian leaders, from Rome to Paris, from Beirut to Athens and from Gaza to Tunis. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for these killings, although it generally does not deny its role. And analysts are convinced that these assassinations bear Israel’s hallmark, spanning 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 head of Hamas’ political bureau and one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. He was assassinated in a drone strike in a Beirut suburb.
He was living in exile in Lebanon after spending 15 years in an Israeli prison. Before the war began on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him.
Israel has not taken responsibility for his death. However, Danny Danon, a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, praised the attack and praised the Israeli military, the Shin Bet and the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, for killing al-Arouri.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh | January 2010, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Al-Mabhouh was a military commander in the Qassam Brigades, responsible for logistics and weapons supplies.
He founded Unit 101, which focused on kidnapping Israeli fighters. Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana hotel in Dubai, in an attack carried out by the Mossad. According to police, al-Mabhouh was drugged, electrocuted and suffocated with a pillow.
Mahmoud al-Majzoub | May 2006, Sidon, Lebanon
Al-Majzoub was a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group and a close ally of the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
He was assassinated in the Lebanese city of Saida when a car bomb attached to his car door exploded as he opened it.
Israel has denied responsibility for the attack, but Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah have both accused it of responsibility for the killing.
Adnan al-Ghul | October 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Al-Ghul was a senior member of the Qassam Brigades, nicknamed “the father of Qassam” for his work building Hamas’s vast rocket-launching system.
Identified by the Israeli military as a major bomb maker, he was assassinated in a targeted killing, with an Israeli Air Force AH-64 helicopter firing missiles at his car in Gaza.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi | April 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Al-Rantisi was one of the seven co-founders of the Hamas movement, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, at the start of the first Intifada.
He was appointed the new leader of Hamas after Yassin’s assassination in March 2004.
He was killed by a missile strike from an Israeli helicopter in Gaza City, less than a month after Yassin’s assassination. The Israeli 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. Tetraplegic and nearly blind, he used a wheelchair following a sports accident at the age of 16.
He was killed by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter as he left a mosque in Gaza City for morning prayers.
Israeli security sources said at the time that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally ordered and supervised the helicopter attack on the paralyzed cleric.
Salah Chehadeh | July 2002, Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Shehadeh was one of the founders of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and spent a decade in Israeli prisons.
He was killed after the Israeli air force bombed his home in Gaza City.
In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed that Shehadeh was the target of the attack, saying he was behind “hundreds of terrorist attacks over the past 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 Qassam Brigades’ West Bank battalion.
He is considered responsible for introducing suicide bombings as a strategy against Israel.
Ayyash was assassinated in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, by Shin Bet agents who planted an explosive device in his phone, detonating it remotely after receiving a call from his father.
Imad Akel | November 1993, Shujayea, Gaza Strip
Akel was a commander in the Qassam Brigades, where he served as a mentor to current commander Mohammed Deif.
He was nicknamed “the Ghost” because of his use of disguises to launch ambushes against Israeli forces.
In November 1993, Akel was hiding in his house in Shujayea, which was under siege. After several hours, he tried to escape and was shot dead 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), helping to found Fatah in the late 1950s. For years, he was the effective deputy of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
He was shot dead by Israeli agents in a daring 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, finally revealing the truth.
Khalid Nazzal | June 1986, Athens, Greece
Nazzal was the secretary of the central committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and a leader of the PLO.
Israel holds him responsible for the 1974 Ma’alot attack, in which Palestinian fighters killed 22 schoolchildren and four adults.
He was assassinated by Mossad agents in Athens.
Ali Hassan Salamé | 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 a German policeman. Five of the attackers were also killed.
Mossad spies had signed up at Salameh’s gym to befriend him weeks before his assassination. A British-Israeli agent had rented an apartment near Salameh’s home to monitor his movements.
It exploded in her car as she passed a parked Volkswagen bomb in Beirut.
Mohamed Boudia | June 1973, Paris, France
Boudia, an Algerian poet and playwright, was a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who 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 Black September terrorist group’s attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Abdel Wael Zwaiter | October 1972, Rome, Italy
Zwaiter, a Palestinian translator, was a PLO representative 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 connection to the group.
Zwaiter was shot dead by officers in the lobby of his apartment building.
Ghassan Kanafani | July 1972, Beirut, Lebanon
Kanafani, a prominent Palestinian writer 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 attached to the ignition of his car. As he started the car, he ignited a plastic bomb that had been placed behind the bumper.
Israel said his killing was a response to the 1972 mass shooting at Lod Airport (now Ben-Gurion International Airport) in which 26 people were killed and dozens more injured.
But some analysts believe the assassination was already planned long before that.
