Ismail Haniyeh
 Ismail Haniyeh    (politician, freedom fighter, “terrorist”) | |
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| Born | 29 January 1962 |
| Alma mater | Islamic University of Gaza |
Ismail Haniyeh is a Palestinian politician who is a senior political leader of Hamas, the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau; as of 2023, Haniyeh lives in Qatar.
Ceasefire talks
On 19 December 2023, Al Jazeera reported:
Senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is to visit Egypt on Wednesday 20 December 2023 for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange with Israel, a source close to the Palestinian group says.
Qatar-based Haniyeh will head a “high-level” Hamas delegation to Egypt, where he is due to hold talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and other officials, the source told AFP.
The discussions will be “on stopping the aggression and the war to prepare an agreement for the release of prisoners [and] the end of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip”, the source said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about the visit.[1]
Background
Ismail Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1962. 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.
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. 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 was the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from 2006 until February 2017, when he was replaced by Yahya Sinwar. 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.
2023 Israel–Gaza conflict
According to Israeli media, 14 members of Haniyeh's family were killed in October 2023 in an Israeli airstrike on his family home in Gaza City, among them a brother and nephew. In November 2023, a granddaughter of his was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Later that month his eldest grandson was killed in an Israeli strike.
References
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