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                              

Maronite Gemayel Christian Leaders Assassinated In Lebanon; and Why?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

     The father:         Pierre Gemayel (6 November 1905- August 29, 1984) who saw his son assassinated.....

  Pierre Amine Gemayel, also spelled Jmayyel, Jemayyel or al-Jumayyil  6 November 1905 – 29 August 1984), was a Lebanese political leader. A Maronite Catholic, he is remembered as the founder of the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalangist Party), as a parliamentary powerbroker, and as the father of Bachir Gemayel and Amine Gemayel, both of whom were elected to the presidency of the republic in his lifetime.    He opposed the French Mandate over Lebanon in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and advocated an independent state, free from foreign control.  Pierre Gemayel was born on 6 November 1905 in Bikfaya, Lebanon into a Maronite family. His father Amine Bachir Gemayel, known as Abou Ali, and his uncle were forced to flee to Egypt after being sentenced to death in 1914 for opposing Ottoman rule, returning to Lebanon only at the end of World War I.

Gemayel was educated at Jesuit school. He went on to study pharmacyat the French faculty of medicine in Beirut, where he later opened a pharmacy. He owned a pharmacy in Haifa, Palestine. The pharmacy was located in Sahat Al Hanatir (Carriage Square).   On his return to Lebanon from Europe, in 1936 Gemayel founded Al Kataeb Al Loubnaniyyah party (Kataeb Party)with a few others.                                                               

Beirut 1982: Bachir Gemayel with Ariel Sharon & Raful

President from August 23,1982-September 14, 1982: 22 days.   

I moved to Israel in 1980, so was there in 1982 living in Tzfat (Safed) in the Galilee.  I was teaching English at the junior high.  I had been a 22 year teacher in 4th grade in Oregon when my husband and I got very worried about the skinheads from Idaho who had moved into our favorite meeting place, a restaurant in Ontario, Oregon.  They were most anti-Semitic!   Bachir on left, Sharon is large man in middle.                                                       

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. Defense Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, met with Bachir Gemayel months earlier, telling him that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) were planning an invasion to uproot the PLO threat to Israel and to move them out of Lebanon. While Gemayel did not control Israel's actions in Lebanon, the support Israel gave the Lebanese Forces, militarily and politically, angered many Lebanese leftists. 

              Beirut 1982: Bachir Gemayel with Ariel Sharon & Raful

Gemayel had planned to use the IDF to push the Syrian Army out of Lebanon and then use his relations with the Americans to pressure the Israelis into withdrawing from Lebanese territory.

 On 23 August 1982, being the only one to declare candidacy, Gemayel was elected president in an election boycotted by Muslim MPs, as he prevailed over the National Movement.

 Israel had relied on Gemayel and his forces as a counterbalance to the PLO, and as a result, ties between Israel and Maronite groups, from which hailed many of the supporters of the Lebanese Forces, had grown stronger.

Bachir Pierre Gemayel 10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) was a Lebanese militia commander who led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the Kataeb Party, in the Lebanese Civil War and was elected President of Lebanon in 1982.  His death was called a homocide caused by an explosive device.  He was murdered by Habib Shartouni, and then buried on Mount Lebanon.  

He founded and later became the supreme commander of the Lebanese Forces, uniting major Christian militias by force under the slogan of "Uniting the Christian Rifle".

Lebanon:  On 14 September 1982, a bomb was detonated during a meeting of the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalanges) in the Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh. Militia commander and Lebanese president-elect Bachir Gemayel and 23 other Kataeb Party politicians were killed in the blast. It was an assassination !

The attack was carried out by Habib Shartouni and allegedly planned by Nabil Alam, both members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). Both men were believed to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government led by president Hafez al-Assad.

Israel:  The next day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved to occupy the city, allowing members of the Lebanese Forces militia under the command of Elie Hobeika to enter the centrally located Sabra neighborhood and adjoining Shatila refugee camp. Militia members then massacred between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims, causing an international uproar.

Following the news of Gemayel's assassination, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan agreed that the Israeli army should invade West Beirut. The public reason given was to be that they were there to prevent chaos. In a separate conversation, Sharon and Eitan agreed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) should not enter the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, but that the Phalange should be used instead.

                                                Amine Pierre Gemayel in 2012

Amine Pierre Gemayel  born 22 January 1942) is a Lebanese politician who served as President of Lebanon from September 23, 1982 to September 22, 1988: 5 years and 365 days.    On 23 September 1982, his brother, Bachir,  was elected to presidency, but was assassinated before taking office. Endorsed by the United States and Israel, he was elected on 23 September as the eighth president. At the age of 40 years, he was the youngest president to take office.

Amine Pierre Gemayel, born in Bikfaya, his father was Pierre Gemayel, the founder of the Christian Kataeb Party (Also known as the "Phalanges"). He worked as a lawyer, then was elected as a deputy for Northern Metn in 1970 by-election, following the death of his uncle, Maurice Gemayel, and once again in the 1972 general election. At the start of the Lebanese Civil War, the Phalanges were a member of the Lebanese Front, allied with Syria against the leftist National Movement. However, Syria became their enemy, while they started receiving the support of Israel,  This phase saw the rise of his brother, Bachir, who had disputes with Amine about the military leadership, such as uniting the Christian militias by force.

               Pierre Amine Gemayel (23 September 1972-21 November 2006

The Kataeb Party, officially the Kataeb Party – Lebanese Social Democratic Party  also known as the Phalanges, is a right-wing Christian political party in Lebanon founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936.  Pierre Amine Gemayel  commonly known as Pierre Gemayel Jr., or simply Pierre Gemayel; 23 September 1972 – 21 November 2006) was a Lebanese politician in the Kataeb Party, also known as the Phalange Party in English.

Pierre Amine Gemayel was born in Beirut on 24 September 1972 to a Maronite Christian family that has long been involved in Lebanese politics. Gemayel was the eldest son of former President Amine Gemayel and grandson of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Kataeb Party. 

He was also the nephew of former president-elect Bachir Gemayel, who was assassinated in Beirut in 1982.

November 2006, the day before Lebanese Independence Day, at least three to four gunmen opened fire at close range on Gemayel with five different types of suppressed automatic weapons, all using 9 mm bullets, after ramming his car from the front in the Jdeideh suburb north of Beirut with a Honda CRV with tinted windows that they were driving. 

Gemayel was the fifth prominent anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated in Lebanon in two years.

Gemayel was visiting his electoral district of Metn, in Jdeideh that day. The method by which Gemayel was assassinated is much more brazen than that used in the past – gunmen killing in broad daylight, rather than anonymous car bombs detonated remotely. He was rushed by his driver, who escaped the attack unhurt, to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was declared dead. His bodyguard, Sameer Chartouni, was also killed in the attack.

Resource:

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

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

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

https://www.reddit.com/r/ForbiddenBromance/comments/1brontt/beirut_1982_bachir_gemayel_with_ariel_sharon_raful/