ALBAWABA - Haniyeh meets with Palestinian refugees at Lebanon's Ain al-Hilweh camp in 2020 (Reuters, August 2, 2024).
He appeared to know his time was over. In his final comments before his killing in Tehran, Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh discussed life, death, and resistance.
According to Haniyeh, "This is the norm. He gives and removes life. He gives joy and grief. Blessed be Allah, who revives and kills. God willing, this country is eternal and renewing. As the poet stated, 'If a leader falls, another will rise, God willing.'"
In a review of Haniyeh's career, Reuters noted his staunch diplomatic representation of the Palestinian struggle throughout the Israeli attack on Gaza. In April, an Israeli operation murdered three of Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandkids. The attack killed at least 60 relatives and cousins.
After their deaths, Haniyeh said, "The blood of my children is not more precious than the blood of our martyr people in Gaza; they are all my children." Adding, "God willing, we shall construct hopes, the future, and independence and freedom for our people, cause, and nation with the blood of the martyrs and wounds of the injured. This blood mixed with our people's will reinforce our determination and assure our triumph."
After Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, Haniyeh remarked, "We tell all countries, including our Arab brothers, that all normalization and recognition of this entity (Israel) cannot resolve this conflict."
Qatar University Palestinian affairs expert Adeeb Ziyada said Hamas will survive Haniyeh's killing. He said that when Hamas loses a leader, a new one frequently excels in performance and following the movement's principles.
Al-Qassam Brigades co-founder Saleh al-Arouri was murdered in a drone assault on Beirut's southern neighborhood in January 2024.
After attending Iran's new president Massoud Bezhkian's inauguration, Hamas declared Haniyeh's and a companion's deaths in a "Zionist raid" on his Tehran home on Wednesday morning.
