Who are Hamas' leaders?

Israel has said that one of the aims of its military operation in Gaza is to get rid of Hamas' leaders. But who are they?

Yehya Sinwar is thought to be the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, when countless fighters of the militant group Hamas crossed the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and abducting around 240. The most senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip is currently one of Israel's most wanted men. The Israeli army has vowed to eliminate him and crush the group, of which he is but one of several top commanders

'The butcher of Khan Younis:' Yehya Sinwar

Considered charismatic and highly intelligent, as well as brutal and ruthless, Yahya Sinwar rules with an iron fist. He was born in the refugee camp of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip in 1962 and was one of the early members of Hamas when it formed in 1987.

A few years later, he was also involved in setting up its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which has carried out suicide attacks in Israel. He was nicknamed the "Butcher of Khan Younis" after taking brutal action against Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.

In 1988, an Israeli court sentenced him to four life sentences after he was convicted of killing two Israeli soldiers and murdering several Palestinians. Sinwar learned Hebrew in jail and reportedly studied the mindset of the "enemy" by reading books by famous Israeli personalities. Israeli doctors are said to have saved his life after an abscess was removed from near his brain.

In 2011, Sinwar was released after 22 years in jail, alongside more than 1,000 Palestinians, as part of a prisoner exchange deal that led to Hamas letting the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit go. Sinwar returned to Gaza and became responsible for liaising between the military and political arms of Hamas. In 2017, he became the group's leader in the Gaza Strip.

The 'cat with nine lives': Mohammed Deif
Mohammed Deif has led Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, since 2002. Israel says he is responsible for several suicide attacks and the death of dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians.

He is also thought to be one of those behind the extensive Hamas tunnel system in Gaza, and he too is accused of having planned and led the October 7 attack. The Israeli army has said it wants to kill him during its current military operation.

Deif has been one of Israel's most wanted men since 1995. He was temporarily imprisoned in Israel in 2000 but was able to escape during the turmoil of the second intifada, an armed Palestinian uprising that lasted from 2000 to 2005. There has hardly been a trace of him since.

He is thought to have survived seven assassination attempts, which left him seriously injured and killed several members of his family. Deif is said to have lost an eye, a foot and part of his arm. He never appears in public. It is rumored that he spends each night in a different building.

Deputy commander-in-chief of Qassam Brigades: Marwan Issa
Issa too was born in a refugee camp in Gaza. Little is known about his youth, but he is said to have belonged to the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization from which Hamas later emerged. He served a five-year prison sentence in Israel during the first intifada (1987-1993). In 1997, the Palestinian Authority arrested and jailed him, but he was released after the second intifada began in 2000. Today, he is the deputy commander-in-chief of the Qassam Brigades and Deif's right-hand man.

Issa has also survived several targeted assassination attempts by Israel and he remains high on the state's wanted list.

Hamas leaders in Qatar: Ismail Haniyeh und Khaled Mashaal

Since two of its most important leaders are not in Gaza but in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, it would be difficult for Israel to completely extinguish Hamas. Ismail Haniyeh, who is generally considered to be the organization's supreme leader, was also born in a refugee camp in Gaza.

He attended a United Nations school and went on to study at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he reportedly first came into contact with Palestinian independence movements. He was appointed dean of the philosophy department in 1993, and in 1997 he became the personal secretary of Hamas founder, Ahmed Yassin.

Haniyeh was appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority by President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas won a majority of seats in the 2006 legislative elections. However, he was dismissed just one year later after Hamas unleashed a wave of violence to oust Abbas' Fatah party from the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh refused to step down and Hamas continued to rule the Gaza Strip, while Fatah remained responsible for the occupied West Bank.

In 2017, Haniyeh was elected head of Hamas' political bureau, succeeding Khaled Mashaal.

Mashaal was born in the West Bank in 1956 and studied physics at Kuwait University. He later lived in Syria and Jordan and was also a founding member of the Hamas political bureau, the chairman of which he became in 1996. He called for terror attacks against Israel and in 1997 survived an assassination attempt by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

In 2012, he travelled to Gaza via Egypt to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. It was reportedly the first time he had set foot on Palestinian territories in 45 years. In 2017, he stepped down as Hamas' leader to make way for Haniyeh. He is now head of the organization's political bureau.