Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader behind Hamas’s deadliest ever attack on Israelis, has been assassinated nearly 10 months after the October 7 massacres in Israel.

He had watched the 2023 attack unfold on television with delight from the safety of Qatar.

Footage from inside his Doha office showed Haniyeh celebrating the attack with other Hamas officials, before they prostrated themselves on the carpet and praised God.

Hamas said on Wednesday that  Haniyeh had been killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, although the Israeli authorities did not comment.

He had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

“Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

Haniyeh’s killing came after Israel on Tuesday struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, killing a senior commander of the Iran-backed group it said was responsible for a weekend rocket attack on the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

Back on October 7, there were plenty of reasons why he was seen cheering: this was the single deadliest attack ever launched on Israel by Hamas, one that would define his legacy and the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The 2023  rocket barrage and dawn raids on Israel no doubt required meticulous planning and approval from the highest levels of Hamas’s leadership, both those in Gaza and in the Doha office.

It may also have been coordinated with Hamas’s regional allies, such as Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, who could freely meet Haniyeh due to him being based outside of blockaded Gaza.

Qatar, which has said it holds Israel responsible for Saturday’s massacre, had hosted Haniyeh in an office in Doha for a number of years, to the astonishment of Israeli officials. Qatar denies supporting Hamas and says the group is simply part of the reality on the ground.

The wealthy Gulf state has also hosted the Taliban, in what it says is an effort to foster mediation efforts between the Afghan group and the West.

As the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, Haniyeh might not have master-minded the military specifics of Saturday’s assault, such as the training of fighters inside Gaza and the preparation for ground and naval incursions into Israel.

That job was probably handled by Hamas military chiefs based inside the Gaza Strip, such as Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of its armed divisions.

Either way, it is Haniyeh who has emerged as the public face behind the attack, having given a speech hailing the massacre as the beginning of a new era in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Enough is enough, the cycle of intifadas and revolutions in the battle to liberate our Palestinian land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons must be completed,” he said in the speech.

He then signalled that further violence was coming to Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, where Hamas has a much smaller presence but has carried out numerous attacks in the past.

‘Attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar’

Historically, Israel has a track record for carrying out daring assassinations worldwide, which range from mundane shootings and poisonings to more baroque techniques, such as mailing targets explosive books. 

However, an attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar itself, even a covert one, would have risked an even greater regional escalation.

Born in the al-Shati refugee camp in 1962, Haniyeh joined Hamas while studying Arabic literature at university and quickly rose up the ranks. 

His parents had fled their homes in what is now Ashkelon, a town near the Gaza border, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

As a senior Hamas figure, he was in and out of Israeli prisons throughout his earlier life including a six-month stint in 1988, followed by three years imprisonment in 1989 during the First Intifada, on terror group membership charges.

He was later deported to Lebanon before eventually returning to Gaza where he survived at least one Israeli assassination attempt in the early 2000s amid the Second Intifada.

But it was only in 2006 that he came to prominence worldwide, leading Hamas to an election victory over the Fatah movement – which prompted a civil war and the complete takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas.

Around 2016, Haniyeh relocated from the Gaza Strip to Qatar, where he no doubt considers himself beyond the reach of Israeli forces – for now, at least.