Where the leadership of Hamas is – and who actually is Orca stranded on the Belgian North Sea coast and died

Images currently leaving the Gaza Strip provide only a rudimentary glimpse of the horrors suffered by the Palestinian civilian population there. They show a country in ruins.

These images bear witness to a decades-old conflict, a spiral of hatred and violence that escalated again on October 7, 2023: in a terrible, brutal attack, the terrorist organization Hamas murdered and abducted more than 1,400 Israeli babies, women and men. It was the most devastating attack on Israel in fifty years.

Since then, the Israeli Army (IDF) has been shelling the Gaza Strip with rocket after rocket. The goal: to eradicate the terrorist Hamas.

The IDF has already succeeded in a number of coups. According to Israeli sources, Hamas air force chief Kerad Abu Merad and Hamas commander Ali Qadhi are presumed dead. But who are the heads of Hamas? And have they really all holed up in the Gaza Strip?

Hamas and al-Qassam brigades

Hamas is an acronym and stands for Harakat aI-Muqawama aISlamiya. Translated this means: Islamic resistance movement.

Hamas was founded in 1987 as a regional branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip. Since its founding, Hamas has fought against the state of Israel, which it wants to wipe out. This goal is the essential feature of the Hamas ideology and distinguishes the movement from other Palestinian organizations such as Fatah, which calls for a separate state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. A Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal, said in 2017:

To achieve this goal, Hamas has been running schools since its founding, which are often funded by other Arab states. Anti-Semitism and armed jihad are part of the curriculum. And initially, Hamas functioned as a charity, establishing other social institutions in addition to schools.

On the other hand, Hamas has built up an armed wing over time. The most famous group of this military branch are the Izzaddin al-Qassam Brigades. Over the years, the Al-Qassam have acquired a broad terrorist repertoire. They carry out suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israel or specialize in kidnapping Israeli soldiers or their relatives. This is one of the reasons why Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the states of the European Union and the US.

At the same time, Hamas tried from the very beginning to defend itself against the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Front (PLO) within the Palestinians. She partially succeeded in this in 2006 when she was elected to the ruling party in the Gaza Strip. Following violent armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas took full political control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Israel then imposed a blockade on the densely populated coastal area, where more than two million people live on an area of ​​365 square kilometers.

As the founder of social institutions and schools, as a perpetrator of attacks and as a political party in equal measure Hamas maintains complex structures and several institutions. It would be an illusion that the public would be aware of all the leading figures within Hamas and its affiliated organizations.

Ismail Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh is chairman of Hamas’s political bureau and therefore the ‘head’ of the organization’s political arm.

He was elected to this position by the so-called Shura Council, a body of 77 people that elects the 15-member Politburo. The Politburo, in turn, is Hamas’s highest decision-making body. Since 2022, those responsible for the Qassam Brigades have also been in the Politburo.

On October 7, a video circulated on social media showing Haniyeh in his elegant office watching the bloody attack on Al Jazeera and cheering on his accomplices.

Until about two years ago, the Hamas leader lived in Gaza with his family. He then moved to Doha, where he would stay in a luxury hotel.

Haniyeh is said to have amassed a fortune worth millions during his time in Gaza. According to the Egyptian magazine Rose al-Yusuf, Haniyeh spent $4 million on a beach in Gaza alone in 2010. Since then, the Hamas leader has purchased several villas and buildings in the Gaza Strip, which he is said to have registered in the names of some of his thirteen children. This perceived wealth is in stark contrast to the reality of many Palestinians’ lives.

But it is not just Haniyeh himself who benefits, no, his entire family benefits from his father’s special position. Although most Gazans cannot leave their homes, Haniyeh’s sons reportedly travel regularly to Turkey, where they are expected to invest in real estate. In July 2022, a document was shared on Palestinian social media that appears to show an official list of people allowed to travel through the Rafah crossing. Among them, for example, Haniyeh’s son Hazem, as well as his wife and children.

The revelation sparked a campaign against the Hamas leadership under the slogan “Our hands are clean” – a rarity in the Gaza Strip, where political dissent is generally not tolerated.

The campaign’s motto referred to a speech by Haniyeh on the 22nd anniversary of Hamas’s founding, in which he said:

Mohammed Deif

While Haniyeh likes to hang out with international politicians, the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, seems like a ghost. Deif has commanded the Qassam Brigades since the early 2000s. He is also the one behind the October 7 attack. Hardly anyone knows his face, let alone where he is.

NZZ foreign editor Ulrich Schwerin says about Deif: “Mohammed Deif is said to have survived seven attempts on his life.” He lost an eye and other parts of his body. His wife and two children are dead.

Qatar’s schizophrenic role

It is not only Ismail Haniyeh who lives in Qatar. A large part of Hamas’s political elite lives in the Gulf state. Although the Politburo governs the Gaza Strip, it has moved its headquarters to Doha, the capital of Qatar. Other Hamas officials are believed to be in Lebanon or Turkey.

Chaled Maschal, Haniyeh’s predecessor, also lives in Qatar. In December 2012, Mashal entered the Gaza Strip to participate in Hamas’ anniversary celebrations. It was the first time in 45 years that he had set foot on Palestinian territory.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, and Tahar al-Nounou, Haniyeh’s adviser and also a Hamas spokesman, also live in Qatar.

Qatar plays a very obscure role in the war between Israel and Hamas. On the one hand, the country provides shelter to the officials of the terrorist group, and on the other hand, the country acts as a mediator. US President Joe Biden even acknowledged Qatar’s role in the release of the two Hamas hostages last Monday.

But this schizophrenic existence has not gone unnoticed by everyone. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said:

He added:

Qatar tops the list of donor countries for Gaza; it is estimated that the Gulf monarchy has donated more than $1.5 billion over the past decade. But not much of it seems to have gone down well with the public.