Khaled Meshaal is tipped off as the new leader of Hamas after the ‘assassination’ of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The strike, which Hamas has blamed on Israel, has left the group scrambling to find a new leader while raising concerns about the direction the group will take amid ongoing conflict.
What we know about Khaled Meshaal
What we know about Khaled Meshaal
- Khaled Meshaal, who is expected to become the new leader of Hamas, gained global attention in 1997 when Israeli agents attempted to assassinate him by injecting him with poison outside his office in Amman, Jordan.
- Originally from Silwad near Ramallah, Meshaal moved to Kuwait with his family as a child and joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 15. The Brotherhood played a key role in founding Hamas during the first
Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the late 1980s.
- Meshaal transitioned from being a schoolteacher to lobbying for Hamas from abroad, while other Hamas leaders were often imprisoned by Israel.
- As Hamas’ political leader in exile since the year before the assassination attempt, Meshaal has represented the group internationally, benefiting from fewer travel restrictions compared to other Hamas officials.
- At 68, Meshaal is tipped to succeed Ismail Haniyeh, who was recently assassinated in Iran, with both Tehran and Hamas pledging retaliation against Israel. Meshaal’s relationship with
Iran has been complicated due to his previous support for the Sunni revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011.
- Throughout his tenure, Meshaal has faced the challenge of balancing the group’s original goal of Israel’s destruction with the possibility of a more pragmatic approach to achieve Palestinian statehood. His efforts to reconcile with President Mahmoud Abbas led to internal tensions within Hamas, resulting in his replacement by Haniyeh in 2017.
- When Khaled Meshaal was responsible for international fundraising in Jordan, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. The incident in 1997, ordered by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in retaliation for a Hamas bombing in Jerusalem, aimed to kill Meshaal.
- After the assassination attempt, Jordan closed Hamas’ office in Amman and expelled Meshaal, who then moved to Qatar and later to Syria in 2001. In December 2012, Meshaal visited the Gaza Strip for the first time since leaving the West Bank as a child and delivered a significant speech at Hamas’ 25th anniversary celebration.
- During his time abroad, Hamas solidified its control over Gaza in 2007, challenging the Western-backed Palestinian Authority that was open to peace negotiations with Israel.
( with input from agencies)