Who are Hamas leaders targeted by the unexpected bombing of Israel in Doha. First information about killed people
The key targets of the Israeli operation in Qatar were the interim leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, former leader Khaled Mashaal and the head of the Palestinian militant grouping Group Jabarin, the Jerusalem Post, The Guardian and Reuters.
On Tuesday, Israel made a “targeted” air attack in Doha, the capital of Qatar, in an attempt to assassinate several top members of the Hamas leadership.
The main targets of this operation were Khalil Al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal and Zaer Jabarin. At the time of writing this article it is not known if the attack was a success or if the three are still alive.
But who are these three people and what roles do they play in Hamas?
Who is Khalil al-Hayya
Khalil Al-Hayya is the interim leader of Hamas, being part of the leadership of five members who made up the upper echelons of Hamas following the assassination of Yahya Sinwar, in October 2024.
Born in the Gaza strip, Hayya has been a member of Hamas for decades and has been a close ally of Sinwar. It seems that this close relationship was determined to act as Sinwar's main representative in the Hamas Political Bureau abroad, which some sources attribute to the cold relationship between Sinwar and the prominent figures of the militant organization living in exile.
This position allowed Hayya to cultivate strong ties with some of the Hamas allies, like Iran.
In 2022, he led a Hamas delegation to Damascus to restore the links with former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who had been broken a decade earlier, when the movement supported the revolt against Assad, a member of the Alawite minority group.
Hayya openly expressed support for the massacre of October 7, 2023 in Israel, saying that the attack managed to restore the Palestinian issue to the center of international attention. However, he also said that the operation had to be a limited one, in order to capture “a number of soldiers” to change with closed Palestinians.
“But the unit of the Zionist army collapsed completely,” he said in a comment published by the Palestinian Information Center, Hamas affiliate, referring to IDF (Israel's army).
He climbed even more in the organization hierarchy in 2024, after the IDF assassination of the high official Hamas Saleh al-Arouri.
In December 2024, Hayya would have taken over the leadership of Izzadin Al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas.
But the most public and notable role Hayya played in Hamas is the chief negotiator of the Palestinian group, being the main figure that participated in numerous negotiations on the release of hostages and the cessation of fire in the Gaza strip.
Throughout the period in Hamas, Hayya survived numerous attempts to assassinate him, some of them, according to sources, to the death of many of his relatives.
Khaled Mashaal
Khaled Mashaal is a long -lasting pillar of Hamas and was the leader of the organization for decades, being replaced by Ismail Haniyeh in 2017.
Although he is no longer the leader of Hamas, Mashaal has kept an important position in the organization and intervened as an interim leader several times during the war between Israel and Hamas.
Despite the fact that he worked in Hamas for so long, Mashaal has not lived in the Palestinian territories before the establishment of the militant organization, except for a few short visits, the Mashaal family fleeing the country after the six -day war.
When Hamas was established in 1987, Mashaal led the group's activities in Kuwait and occupied a place in the Haas Political Bureau, when it was established in the 1990s, soon becoming the president of this office.
When the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, was killed by Israel in 2004, Mashaal was recognized as the true leader of the organization. Under his leadership, Hamas gained a wide popularity, defeating Fatah and obtaining the majority in the Palestinian elections of 2006.
Mashaal also played an important role in negotiating the exchange of prisoners who led to the release of the IDF soldier taken prisoner, Gilad Schalit, in 2012.
Over the years, numerous assassination attempts have been performed against Mashaal, including a highly publicized poisoning attempt in Mossad in 1997, which triggered a diplomatic crisis with Jordan.
Even after his withdrawal in 2017, Mashaal kept an important role in the organization. After the killing of Sinwar, he was one of the Hamas officials who joined the 5 members leadership to help lead the Palestinian group.
ZABARIN
Zaer Jabarin is the long -term leader of the Hamas Financial Office and was responsible for managing the complex financial network and the investment portfolio. In this capacity, he was the man who made sure that the money was flowing, maintaining the militant organization in operation and feeding it for his various operations.
At the end of the 1980s, in the early years of Hamas, Jabarin co -founded the military forces of the Westordan organization. In this capacity, he was considered responsible for the numerous killings of soldiers and police officers of IDF during the first intifada.
Arrested by Israeli forces in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment, Jabarin was released in 2011 in the “Gilad Schalit” prisoners. After that, he left the country, settling in Istanbul to administer the Financial Office, as well as the Bureau of Martyrs, Warm and Prisoners.
Jabarin was successful in managing Hamas Finance, increasing the organization's budget to hundreds of millions of dollars. This money included diversified investments, such as real estate and actions, private donations and fundraising operations. By 2024, Hamas's investments were evaluated at more than half a billion dollars, according to NBC News. Moreover, according to the American Office for the Control of Foreign Assets, he also contributed to increasing the flow of funds to Hamas from Iran.
But Jabarin assumed new responsibilities at the beginning of 2024, after the death of Arouri, which determined the financial chief of Hamas to become the new leader of the organization operations in the Westordania.
This has led to an increase in terrorist attacks in the West Bank and in certain parts of Israel, at a time when the Hamas capabilities in Gaza were under pressure from IDF.
In addition, Jabarin's leadership of the Bureau of Martyrs, Warm and Prisoners was to play a role in negotiations with Israel on hostages.
Hamas leadership would have survived Israeli attacks on Doha
The son of Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya, was killed in Israel's attack on Doha, shows the latest information obtained by Sky News.
However, it seems that the leadership of the Palestinian militant group has survived.
The British post recalls that Khalil Al-Hayya is one of the five members of the Hamas Board who provided the group leadership after killing Yahya Sinwar by Israel last October.
This is not the first time that Israel kills a member of the Al-Hayya family.
An Israeli air attack hit his family's house in the Sejaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza in 2007, killing more of his relatives.
During the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel, the house of his eldest son, Osama, was bombed, killing Osama, his wife and three of their children.
Five people killed in the Qatar attack that were not part of the Hamas leadership
The Arab media reports that five people were killed in the Israeli air attack on Doha.
Stories say these people were Hamas members, but they were not part of the Palestinian group leadership.
According to information in the Arab press, the people who died in the attack are:
- Himam Al-Hayya, the son of Hamas leader from Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya;
- Jihad Labad Abu Bilal, director of Khalil Al-Hayya's office;
- And three “associates”, probably the bodyguards or counselors of Hamas high -ranking officials: Abdullah Abu Khalil, Moamen Abu Omar and Ahmad Abu Malek.
Israeli officials have been increasingly optimistic that Hamas leadership was killed after 10 bombs were thrown on the Doha attack, mentioning that Hamas tried to hide his leaders in the past, notes The Times of Israel.
