Who are the key leaders of Hamas 鈥� inside Gaza and beyond?
The militant Palestinian group divides its leadership between those in Gaza and those in exile abroad - mostly in Qatar, but also Lebanon and Turkey.
Tuesday 6 August 2024 22:41, UK
One of Hamas's key political leaders has been killed in Iran. Israel has not yet commented on his death, but it has placed bounties of millions on the heads of Hamas leaders.
Although it has long been the policy of Israeli intelligence services not to confirm assassinations abroad, Hamas claims Ismail Haniyeh was killed "in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran".
Haniyeh was in Iran for the swearing-in ceremony of the country's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, but has been based in Qatar since 2019.
Following his death, Gaza-based leader Yahya Sinwar was announced as the new leader of the group.
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Hamas was founded in 1987 and born out of the first uprising or 'intifada' against Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
The group divides its leadership between those in Gaza and those in exile abroad - mostly in Qatar, but also Lebanon and Turkey.
Generally, those inside Gaza are more directly involved in the military fight against Israel - while the Hamas political bureau is based in Doha.
"In order to survive as an entity, amid the threat of assassination, Hamas decided to have an internal and external leadership," says Dr Abdul Bashid Shaikh, lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Leeds.
"That way if all the key leaders were wiped out in Gaza, at least the organisation could regrow organically."
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The leaders in Gaza are largely confined to its vast network of underground tunnels, moving constantly with a very small group of security staff to avoid detection and assassination, he adds.
From the Israeli perspective, killing Hamas leaders inside Gaza does not "cause a diplomatic crisis" with countries such as Qatar hosting its leaders abroad, adds Dr Ahron Bregman, senior teaching fellow in the Arab-Israeli conflict at King's College London and former Israeli army major.
Although not an exhaustive list, here we look at the key Hamas leaders inside Gaza and beyond, including those claimed dead.
Yahya Sinwar
Nicknamed the "face of evil" and "butcher of Khan Younis", Sinwar has been in charge of Hamas in Gaza since 2017.
In August, following the assassination of Haniyeh, Sinwar took control of the wider group as head of the political bureau, Hamas announced.
He spent more than 20 years in prison and was last released among some 1,000 Palestinians exchanged for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar used his time in jail to "perfect the art of psychological warfare" by learning Hebrew and reading Israeli newspapers to better understand his enemy, Dr Shaikh says.
Dr Bregman claims he "understood the Israelis way better than they understood him… hence his ability to deceive them and catch them off guard so effectively on 7 October".
In the early days of Hamas, he was close to both co-founders Ahmed Yassin and Mahmoud al Zahar.
According to Israeli reports, Sinwar said Yassin granted him a fatwa (a ruling in Islamic law) to kill anyone suspected of collaborating with the Israelis.
Once released from jail he was put in charge of Hamas's internal security branch, the Majd Force, which seeks out and kills suspected Israeli spies.
According to reports, he once boasted about forcing a Hamas member suspected of informing for a competing faction to "bury his own brother alive… handing him a spoon to finish the job".
At 62 he is among the group's younger heads and is one of the "trinity of Hamas leaders in Gaza", Dr Shaikh says.
In charge of operations and strategy he is the "ultimate mastermind" behind the 7 October incursion, he adds.
Mohammed Sinwar
Yahya Sinwar's younger brother Mohammed is also on Israel's most wanted list, with a $300,000 (£237,000) reward.
At 48, he is the youngest senior Hamas figure, having joined the Qassam Brigades in 1991.
He was arrested by the Palestinian Authority during one of its US-led crackdowns and spent three years in prison.
After he escaped, he became close to Mohammed Deif and his deputy Marwan Issa on the military side of the organisation.
Together they are thought to have been behind several deadly suicide bombings in Israel during the 1990s.
He became head of the Khan Younis Brigade in southern Gaza in 2005 and was part of the cell responsible for kidnapping and holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit the following year.
In 2014 he was widely assumed to be dead - after Hamas released images of what appeared to be his blood-soaked body.
But during the current conflict, he has appeared in a video being driven through Gaza's tunnel network, where he is likely to have been hiding underground for the past 10 years.
Dr Shaikh says: "A man widely assumed dead by most Western observers in 2014 appears to be well and truly alive.
"Once again Israeli and Western intelligence sources have been outfoxed by Hamas. And what makes this story even more sensational is that he's played a massive role in masterminding the 7 October attacks."
Dr Bregman describes him as an "important Hamas military man" and says killing him would be a "small Israeli victory" that could help lead it to his brother… 'the most wanted man in Gaza'.
Khaled Meshaal
Khaled Meshaal is one of the founding members of Hamas and, at 67, is among its older leaders.
Born in the West Bank, his family fled to Jordan after the Six Day War, and he later spent time in Kuwait and Syria, before moving to Qatar.
He was head of the political bureau until 2017, but is still based in Doha, where he is now regarded as one of the group's chief negotiators and has led discussions over 7 October hostages.
Dr Shaikh describes his position as "interesting", having spent far more time outside the Palestinian territories than inside.
He was involved in the political bureau both in Kuwait and Damascus, where it was based until the Syrian civil war.
Meshaal was poisoned by Israeli intelligence agents while he was still living in Jordan and having survived two further assassination attempts is considered a "living martyr" by his sympathisers.
The handover of power to the leaders in Gaza saw Meshaal "pushed to the sidelines", but he remains an "influential figure", Dr Shaikh says.
His age and involvement in factional disputes may have also been a factor, he adds.
Mahmoud Zahar
Fast approaching his 80s, Mahmoud Zahar is the oldest of the Hamas leaders and one of its original co-founders.
Born in Gaza in 1945, he went to university in Cairo before returning to work as a surgeon.
He was imprisoned by Israel in 1988 soon after setting up the movement and was released in 1992.
Dr Shaikh describes him as "the most hardline Islamist" of the Hamas leaders. In terms of character, he is "brazen, outspoken… sometimes coming across as a loose cannon", he adds.
"I would describe him as a global Islamist. He's already said Operation Al Aqsa Storm is just the beginning and he wants to extend Islamic domination throughout the world. In that sense he's presenting himself as a visionary."
He was elected to the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs under Haniyeh's premiership when Hamas won the 2006 elections, before it was dismissed and the group took over by force in 2007.
Previously Zahar has claimed that Israel has "legitimised" Hamas killing its children by killing Palestinian children over the course of the conflict.
Although the most radical, his age means he is unlikely to be a key target, Dr Shaikh says, and he is also unlikely to move abroad, as others who are not directly involved in day-to-day military operations have, he adds.
Ismail Haniyeh
As a prominent member of the movement that became Hamas in the late 1980s, Ismail Haniyeh was widely considered the group's overall leader until his reported death in July 2024.
He was imprisoned in 1989 as part of the Israeli response to the first Palestinian uprising and then spent time in the 'no man's land' between Israel and Lebanon in 1992.
Once back in Gaza, in 1997 he was put in charge of the office of Ahmed Yassin - one of the Hamas founders and its spiritual leader - who was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in 2004.
This increased his influence, and he was eventually elected Palestinian prime minister by its president and the leader of rival group Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, when Hamas won the most seats in the 2006 elections.
A year later, however, fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah, ultimately ousting Fatah from Gaza and separating the Palestinian territories between the Hamas-controlled strip and Palestinian Authority-run West Bank.
This made Haniyeh "de facto leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip" between 2007 and 2017, Dr Shaikh says, until he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar. He then moved to Qatar to become head of the political bureau where he led ceasefire negotiations after the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hamas war.
Mohammed Deif
Mohammed Deif has been chief commander of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, since 2002. He helped engineer the network of underground tunnels that run under Gaza and into Israel, allowing Hamas fighters to access the territory.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) believe they killed him in a strike on Khan Younis, southern Gaza in early July. They say he was hiding in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was still not clear whether Deif and his deputy, Rafa'a Salameh, were killed, but vowed to continue pursuing them.
Deif spent several years in prison, having been accused of planning bombings, kidnappings, and mass killings.
He escaped in 2000 during the second Palestinian uprising and has been almost untraceable ever since, with only three known photos of him.
Israel tried to assassinate him in 2002, which resulted in him losing an eye. Some reports claim he also lost a foot, hand, and some of his speaking ability. A subsequent assassination attempt in 2014 killed his wife and two of his children.
Deif chose his nom de guerre, which means 'guest' in Arabic, to reflect his constantly being on the move, often staying in other people's homes for protection.
"The Israelis have been hunting Deif for decades," Dr Bregman says. "He's elusive with a high sense of security."
For Israel he has been "top of the assassination list", alongside Sinwar, but for his sympathisers he remains a "symbol of resilience", he adds.
Despite his "shadowy" nature, as many refer to it, it was Deif who appeared in the video after 7 October, which declared it "Operation Al Aqsa Storm", and that "enough is enough".
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Marwan Issa
Marwan Issa was Mohammed Deif's second-in-command as deputy head of the Qassam Brigades. He replaced Ahmed Jaabri in the job after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in 2012.
US officials say he was killed in an airstrike in March, with Israeli military sources claiming he was targeted inside a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
"He was very much on the operational side of things - in charge of strategy and military attacks on Israel," Dr Shaikh says.
As such, Issa is believed to be one of the main orchestrators of the 7 October incursion.
"He's at the very top of the list of individuals Israel has sought to eliminate because of the threat he poses to their state," Dr Sheikh adds.
He spent five years in an Israeli prison after being detained for his involvement with Hamas during the first intifada. In 1997 he was arrested again, by the Palestinian Authority, but was freed during the second uprising.
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Issa survived an assassination attempt in 2006, as well as air strikes on his Gaza home in 2014 and 2021.
Despite his senior position, he had not been photographed until 2011, when he made a surprise appearance in a picture with exchanged Palestinian prisoners.
He was last photographed in 2015 at a Hamas security conference in Gaza, with his low profile important to Hamas's "psychological strategy", Dr Shaikh adds.