It came as a surprise that the charismatic official of the Palestinian group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, had been assassinated in Tehran, Iran. Haniyeh, whom people regarded as the verbose person of Hamas, had for years been running the affairs of the group from Turkey and Qatar.
The assassination of Haniyeh met international condemnation because, in the eyes of many diplomats, he was one of the relatively moderate leaders of the Iran-backed Hamas.
As Hamas’s leader since 2017, Haniyeh has played an important role in ensuring the group’s representation in the international arena through ceasefires and diplomacy with regional partners.
Boys stand was taken as fighting continues between Hamas and Israel, and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought an arrest warrant for Haniyeh and other leaders of the organization on the charges of war crimes.
Even though Haniyeh had a rather rhetorically aggressive tone in public speeches, he was considered more of a moderate in comparison to Gaza’s internal radicals.
It is still uncertain as to why Haniyeh was to be assassinated, but it is a severe loss for Hamas, who has lost several relatives of the man in the struggle against Israel.
The group is challenged to make the next move without its chief diplomatic asset in the previous fragile exercises that included negotiation of peace and cease-fire deals.
