Where Is Khaled Mashal, Hamas Leader, And Other Hamas Leaders?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Mashal is regarded as one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas since the death of Ahmed Yassin, alongside Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.  

On 25 September 1997, Mossad agents acting under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet attempted to assassinate him.  The attempt on Meshaal’s life came in the wake of a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. (In 1997, Israeli Mossad agents attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman, Jordan. The plot was ultimately unsuccessful and triggered an international incident.)

Where is Khaled Mashal?  Khaled Mashal/Mashaal born 28 May 1956) is a Palestinian politician who served as the second chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from 1996 until May 2017, when he was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh. He has been the acting leader of Hamas twice, from July 2024 until August 2024 and since October 2024, after both leaders were assassinated by Israel. Note;  it was thought earlier that he had been assassinated before the attempt on 9/9/25 by Israel.  It's possible that Khaled and other prominent Hamas members had left the room expected to be in and went into another to pray, as they do so 5 times a day.  That may have saved them and I include Khaled Mashal in this group if alive. 

Word out is that he is no longer important enough or viable.  Hamas may be ignoring him.   

Note that there were listed the 2 heads of Hamas in the meeting;  Mashal and the present active one, Khalil al-Hayya: Head of Hamas in Gaza and a senior negotiator who was reportedly meeting with other members of the negotiating team when the strike occurred. Why wasn't Mashaal mentioned?  Hayya was accidently in another room with others praying and was safe that way.                               

  Terrorists: Hamas, Hezbollah and Yahya...October 21, 2024 in Yemen, conspiring together.                        

Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, an Islamist political and military organization. He also served as the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and de facto leader of Hamas since its inception from December 1987 until his assassination in March 2004.

Ismail Haniyeh (29 January 1962 – 31 July 2024) was a Palestinian politician who served as third chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from May 2017 until his assassination in July 2024. He also served as the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority from March 2006 until June 2014 and the first Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip from June 2007 until February 2017, where he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar.                            

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar was a Palestinian militant and politician who served as fourth chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the second leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February 2017, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh in both roles. He was killed in a clash with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in October 2024.

The agents entered Jordan on fake Canadian passports and disguised as tourists. Two of them waited at the entrance of the Hamas offices in Jordan's capital Amman, and, as Mashal walked into his office, one of them came up from behind and held a device to Mashal's left ear that transmitted a fast-acting poison, (said to be fentanyl) . Mashal's bodyguards were suspicious prior to the attack and were able to chase the agents down and capture them. Other agents were also found and captured.

 In an interview, he described the attack as "a loud noise in my ear ... like a boom, like an electric shock." Initially, he thought the agents had failed to hurt him but later in the day he developed a severe headache and began vomiting. He was rushed to a Jordanian hospital where his condition rapidly deteriorated. 

Immediately after the incident, Jordan's King Hussein demanded that Netanyahu turn over the antidote for the poison, threatening to sever diplomatic relations and to try the detained Mossad agents. King Hussein feared that the death of a Hamas leader would trigger riots in his kingdom, perhaps even a civil war. Netanyahu refused, and the incident quickly grew in political significance. With Israeli-Jordanian relations rapidly deteriorating, King Hussein threatened to void the historic 1994 peace between the two countries should Mashal die. U.S. President Bill Clinton intervened and compelled Netanyahu to turn over the antidote.

In August 1999, Hamas' "external leadership" was expelled from Jordan by King Abdullah II. The King feared that the activities of Hamas and its Jordanian allies would jeopardize peace negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel (Saeb Erekat and Gilead Sher, leading to Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum), and accused Hamas of engaging in illegitimate activities within Jordan. 

In mid-September 1999, authorities arrested several Hamas leaders, including Mashal and Ibrahim Ghosheh on their return from a visit to Iran, and charged them with being members of an illegal organization, storing weapons, conducting military exercises, and using Jordan as a training base, charges they denied. 

Mashal was expelled from Jordan in November, and initially made Qatar his home.

 In 2001, he moved to Damascus, Syria.

In February 2012, as the Syrian civil war progressed, Mashal left Syria and returned to Qatar. Hamas distanced itself from the Syrian government and closed its offices in Damascus. Soon after, Mashal announced his support for the Syrian opposition, prompting Syrian state TV to issue a "withering attack" on him.

In December 2012, following the eight-day conflict between Israel and Hamas and the negotiated truce, Mashal visited Gaza for the first time, beginning a four-day-long visit to the territory, for the 25th anniversary of Hamas's founding.                         

Mashal believes that peace with Israel requires two things: that the Palestinian refugees that fled from, or were expelled by, Israeli forces in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence in which the Jewish State was established are allowed to return and that Israel withdraws from the territories it occupied in the 1967 war. Israel has said it would never agree to let all of the refugees return

After October 7, 2023, following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Mashal praised the operation as a clever act of legitimate resistance against Israeli control. He acknowledged that Hamas predicted the major consequences of the attack, stating that loss of Palestinian lives is a necessary sacrifice in their struggle for freedom. 

A few days later, Mashal urged the Arab and Muslim world to join the war against Israel. He also said: "To all scholars who teach jihad... to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application (of theories)". 

In August 2024, he called for the resumption of suicide bombings against Israel.  Evidently he was still alive, or somebody was using his name to promote these acts. 

Update:  

A funeral was held yesterday in Doha for the 6 people killed in the Israeli airstrike against the Hamas leadership meeting there. Included in the dead were the son of Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya, his chief of staff and one of his bodyguards. No senior Hamas figures were at the funeral. While nothing has yet been officially confirmed, it appears that the strike did not succeed in eliminated the Hamas leadership, who apparently left the targeted room for prayers moments before the strike. A Qatari security officer killed in the strike, and several other were injured. Qatar's Prime Minister said that Qatar would respond to the Israeli strike, but didn't say how or when.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Mashal 

edit: 9/13,25, fentanyl  

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200925-remembering-israels-botched-attempt-to-assassinate-khaled-meshaal/  

https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/09/middleeast/khaled-meshaal-fast-facts                              

HAMAS EVOLUTION

 Nadene Goldfoot

Nadene Goldfoot 

                                                

                         PLO Leader Yasser Arafat 1969-2004

It started with Yasser Arafat in 1959.  Yasser Arafat became the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1969, succeeding Ahmed Shukairy. He led the PLO until his death in 2004. Prior to leading the PLO, Arafat co-founded the Fatah movement in 1959, which aimed for Palestinian independence. He also served as the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA ) from 1994 until his death. 

                                  NO NO NO

The Khartoum meeting of Arab leaders, known as the Khartoum Resolution, took place from August 29 to September 1, 1967 after losing in the Six Day War with Israel. This meeting, held in Khartoum, Sudan, occurred shortly after the Six-Day War and resulted in the famous "Three No's" declaration: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. The Arab League Summit also addressed the need for Arab solidarity and efforts to eliminate the effects of the recent aggression.  While Arafat was a prominent figure in Palestinian nationalism at the time, he was not a head of state or government, and thus not part of the Arab League summit. 

The First Palestinian Intifada, also known as the First Palestinian Uprising, began on December 9, 1987. The uprising was ignited by an incident in which an Israeli military truck collided with a vehicle carrying Palestinian workers, killing four of them, near the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. 

Jabalia Camp, located in the North Gaza Governorate, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. It was established in 1948 by the United Nations to accommodate Palestinians who were displaced or expelled from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. 

• The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) plays a crucial role in providing essential services to Jabalia residents, including education, healthcare, relief and social services, infrastructure development, microfinance, and emergency response.  UNRWA operates 32 installations in Jabalia, including 16 school buildings accommodating 26 schools, a food distribution center, and health centers.  Funding for UNRWA activities is primarily from voluntary contributions from UN member states. 

Hamas came into being  in late 1987 at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). Its roots are in the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is supported by a robust sociopolitical structure inside the Palestinian territories.

With the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, no significant change occurred to the administrative or political representation of refugees. While the UNRWA continued to supervise the camps, the first municipal council was founded in Gaza City on 26 July 1994, and this time it included one member from Shati' camp, while the municipalities of Rafah , Khan Yunis , and Deir al-Balah continued to represent refugees in their locales.

 During the Second Intifada (2000–2005), Fatah intensified armed conflict against Israel, claiming responsibility for a number of suicide attacks. Fatah had been closely identified with the leadership of its founder and chairman, Yasser Arafat, until his death in 2004.  

In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well. This was done in the name of peace;  giving land Israel had inherited from the Six Day War.  Ever since, it became a platform from which to shoot from closer into Israel. 

How did Hamas come to power in Gaza in the first place? That history is worth revisiting now, two and a half weeks into the war, as it tests whether Biden’s point is true.

Update: 7/28/25:  The U.S. Congress, including Senator Biden as a key co-sponsor, enacted the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act in December 2006, which codified the policy of prohibiting U.S. assistance to any Palestinian unity government involving Hamas unless these conditions were met. 

• A RAND Corporation publication states that the US, under both Bush and Obama, had a flawed policy toward Gaza that included pushing for elections despite Palestinian and Israeli reservations, which played a significant role in enabling Hamas to seize power.

It was in January 2006 that the Palestinian territories held what turned out to be their last parliamentary elections. Hamas won a bare plurality of votes (44 percent to the more moderate Fatah party’s 41 percent) but, given the electoral system, a strong majority of seats (74 to 45). Neither party was keen on sharing power. Fighting broke out between the two. When a unity government was finally formed in June 2007, Hamas broke the deal, started murdering Fatah members, and, in the end, took total control of the Gaza Strip. Those who weren’t killed fled to the West Bank, and the territories have remained split ever since.

     Fatah and Hamas who could not share the power

 On 20 February,2006  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was nominated to form a new government. The new government with Haniyeh as Prime Minister was sworn in on 29 March. As of May 2025, no new elections have been held since this one.  He died on  31 July 2024 at age 63 in Tehran, Iran by assassination.           

      Mahmoud Abbas born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen (Arabic: أَبُو مَازِن,  is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) since 2005;  20 years already.  He's going to be 90 years old.  

  Farouk Kaddoumi constitutionally succeeded Arafat to the position of Fatah Chairman and continued in the position until 2009, when Abbas was elected chairman. Since Arafat's death, factionalism within the ideologically diverse movement has become more apparent.

Are there really a million Gazans starving?  Who counted them?  It's Hamas who is responsible for they started this war and will not end it.  It's either allow them to slaughter Israelis or defend Israelis that Netanyahu's responsibility lies. When a country is attacked, you'd expect that country to defend its population.  

When a country attacks another, you'd think they'd have plans if there were returned fire and be ready to defend their own.  But if it's part of a weird plan to gain hatred for their target, they would encourage it to happen.  It's their new ammunition, free and easy to spread;  people are so willing to hate Jews.

Are teens and adult Gazans getting enough food?  Hamas terrorists are.  I haven't seen any grown Gazans walking around looking like Holocaust survivors did; only the babies.  Are they being sacrificed in the name of their holy war against Israel?  

The thing that hurts Jews the most in this world is to see a starving person; and essen is their favorite word in Yiddish-eat, eat.  Hamas knows how to hit us below the belt!   This is gut wrenching for us, too, but we know how their parents sacrificed their 18 year olds by allowing them to become terrorists, and would brag about how they fought for Hamas!!  Now Hamas expects them to with hold food from their babies because it makes better PR.  Look at the adults today;  they look normal, not starving.  Hamas members will never starve.   

You think the pictures are horrible?  Jews are crying out against it even more, believe me.  It's too close to what their families have endured.  

How about the terrorists' parents-relatives?  They voted in Hamas.  They are not emaciated like their babies.  Why?  

USA companies and Israeli companies have brought in food and now the roads are blocked by Hamas.  No other country is helping the USA with food except Israel.  They only supply criticism.  

Sinwar, The Most Evil Hamas Leader of A Long Line of Hamas Leadership

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                

   Yahya Sinwar  or Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (29 October 1962-16 October 2024) was 62 at death.  He was the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024 and the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip from February 2017 until his death, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.  Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Egyptian-ruled Gaza in 1962 to a family who had been expelled or fled from Majdal 'Asqalan (modern Ashkelon) during the 1948 Palestine War. 

In February 2017, Sinwar was secretly elected the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, taking over from Ismail Haniyeh. In March, he established a Hamas-controlled administrative committee for the Gaza Strip, opposing power sharing with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. 

1. Sinwar rejected any reconciliation with Israel, and was said to have been dedicated to its eradication seeing military confrontation as the only path to "liberating Palestine", and saying that this would be achieved "by force, not negotiations". 

2. He called on militants to capture more Israeli soldiers. In September 2017, a new round of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority began in Egypt, and Sinwar agreed to dissolve the Hamas administrative committee for Gaza. He was said to 

3. have silenced hard-line voices in Gaza, 

Mohammed Deif, thought to be assassinated, still alive (b: 1965) age 59) also from Khan Yunis refugee camp, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.  

4. ordering against the use of tunnels that Mohammed Deif wanted to use to sneak fighters into Israel before they were shut down by new classified Israeli technology in 2017.  Deif got his way.  He  became the head of the al-Qassam Brigades in 2002, and has since developed the group's capabilities, transforming it from a cluster of amateur cells to organized military units. He had masterminded the group's strategy of combining rocket attacks on Israel with tunnel warfare, and was central to planning the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that initiated the Israel–Hamas war.

   Fatah and Hamas Joined Together For The Moment:  Center is Ismail Haniyeh.   On 14 June 2007, amid the Battle of Gaza, President Mahmoud Abbas announced the dissolution of the March 2007 unity government and the declaration of a state of emergency. Haniyeh was dismissed and Abbas ruled Gaza and the West Bank by presidential decree.  On 8 February 2007, the Saudi-brokered Fatah–Hamas Mecca Agreement produced an agreement on a Palestinian national unity government signed by Fatah and Hamas leaders. The agreement included measures to end the internecine violence. The unity government was formed on 17 March, 2007, a month later.

The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. It only took them 4 months until they could not stand each other.  The reconciliation process and unification of Hamas and Fatah administrations remains unfinalized and the situation is deemed a frozen conflict.  Hamas has remained the political party, responsible for all fighting out of Gaza.  

The chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau  from 1987 until 2004, is the overall and de facto leader of Hamas,  that is governing most of the Gaza Strip since 2007. Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, became the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and de facto leader of Hamas from December 1987 until March 2004. Following his assassination, his deputy, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi took over for only 15 days before he was assassinated by Israel.                 

                                     Khaled Mashal (28 May 1956) is 68 years old.Defying pressure from the Quartet, Mashal announced on 29 January 2006 that Hamas had no plans to disarm but added that Hamas was willing to join arms with other Palestinian factions and form an army "like any independent state".  Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz,  threatened to have Mashal assassinated.  It was unsuccessful. 

The position is currently vacant, following the killing of Yahya Sinwar by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on 16 October 2024 in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. However, Khaled Mashal was appointed as acting de facto leader of Hamas and will perform duties until the new leader was elected. He  is a Palestinian politician who served as chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from 1996 until May 2017, where he was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh. He has also covered duties as the de facto leader of Hamas twice, from July 2024 until August 2024 and from October 2024, after both leaders were assassinated/killed by Israel. He was regarded as one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas since the death of Ahmed Yassin, alongside Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.  Israel's occupation of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria)  and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Six-Day War forced Mashal's family to flee and he has since then lived in other parts of the Arab world in exile. For that reason, he was considered part of Hamas' "external leadership".

        Ismail Haniyeh ( b: 1962/1963-  31 July 2024) was about 62 years old

He also served as prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority from March 2006 until June 2014 and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip from June 2007 until February 2017, where he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar.

 Sinwar was appointed in August 2024 after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated on 31 July 2024 in Tehran, Iran, after attending the inauguration ceremony of President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian militant and politician who served as the de facto leader of Hamas.  He was the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024 and the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip from February 2017 until his death, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh in both roles.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Sinwar 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Deif

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leaders_of_Hamas#:~:text=Ahmed%20Yassin%2C%20the%20founder%20of,he%20was%20assassinated%20by%20Israel.