The Squiz 

Ismail Haniyeh, the top political leader of Hamas, has been killed in a raid in Iran’s capital Tehran, according to a statement from the Palestinian terror group yesterday. Hamas immediately blamed Israel for his death, but Israel hasn’t claimed responsibility – although PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have repeatedly promised to kill Haniyeh and other senior Hamas figures in response to the 7 October attack.

Who was he?

Good question. He was one of the most senior leaders of Hamas for the past 2 decades – he rose to the top job in 2017 and had been living in Qatar for several years. He’s directed the group’s political operations from exile in Qatar for the past couple of years and has been in charge of leading their Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Israel. Another thing to note – he was said to be a pragmatic figure compared to other Hamas leaders… There aren’t many details about his death, but reports say he was in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of their new President Masoud Pezeshkian. Photos show the pair together in the hours before Haniyeh’s death. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – aka the Islamic Republic’s ideological army – confirmed his death after Hamas’s statement yesterday, saying he was assassinated. 

What does it mean for the war in Gaza?

That’s another unknown, but it’s worth noting that Haniyeh wasn’t responsible for Hamas’s military operations – the man in the frame there is Mohammed Deif. Israel says he may have been killed in a targeted strike in Gaza earlier this month, but that’s been hard to confirm… So Haniyeh’s death might not have much impact on what’s happening in Gaza, except that retaliation from Iran against Israel is expected… Keep in mind this comes after Israel killed a senior leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Beirut after last weekend’s attack in the Golan Heights. The US has also struck a base south of Baghdad that was used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (another Iranian-aligned group) in what it said was self-defence. So those fears that a broader Middle East conflict involving Iran are bubbling up…