Who are Hamas’s other leaders?published at 05:06
Although Ismail Haniyeh was considered to be Hamas’s top leader – due to his role leading the Palestinian group’s political operations
while living in exile in Qatar and Turkey – there are other high-ranking Hamas figures.
Yahya Sinwar – who Israel holds partly
responsible for overseeing the 7 October raid which killed about 1,200 people
and led to the kidnappings of more than 200 – has all but disappeared from the
Gaza Strip, with Israel still working to discover his whereabouts.
Sinwar is the founder of the Hamas
security service known as Majd, which manages internal security matters,
investigates suspected Israeli agents and tracks down Israeli intelligence and
security services officers.
In September 2015, the US included Sinwar’s name on its blacklist of “international terrorists”
Mohammed Deif, the elusive leader of Hamas’s military wing – which is known as the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades – is another senior leader who remains on Israel’s most wanted list.
Israel imprisoned him in 2000, but he escaped at the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada in the early 2000s. Since then, he has left behind almost no trace. The last time Israeli security forces tried and failed to assassinate Deif was in 2014, during an assault on the Gaza Strip.
Read more about the militant group’s leadership rung here.