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The Guardian’s obituary of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was recently assassinated in Tehran, labelled him a “politician” rather than a terrorist, despite him leading a proscribed terrorist organisation.
In the tribute, Haniyeh was described as “burly and genial in demeanour” and a “keen footballer and devout Muslim”. Having lived in Doha, Qatar since 2017, he was the leader of the 15-member political bureau that runs Hamas.
Haniyeh led Hamas — of which The Guardian says “Europe and the US called [it] a prohibited terrorist group” — to political victory in the 2006 legislative elections in Gaza. In the same year, “renegade Palestinian commandos” killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped a third, sparking an Israeli invasion which The Guardian says “hardened” Haniyeh’s ideological stance. “We will never recognise the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until Jerusalem’s liberation,” he said.