The seven most powerful leaders of Hamas
Figure 1: Mohammed Deif
His full name is Mohammed Diab Al-Masry, nicknamed Abu Khaled, and nicknamed Al-Deif. Born in Gaza in 1965, he is the leader of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Palestinians call him "the mastermind behind the scenes," while Israelis call him "the Grim Reaper" or "Fighter of Nine Lives."
Figure 2: Marwan Isa
Marwan Issa, also known as the "Shadow Man" and known by the pseudonym Abu Al-Baraa.
He was Deif's right-hand man, deputy commander-in-chief of the Qassam Brigade, and a member of Hamas's political and military wing.
Figure 3: Yahya Sinwar
Yahya Ibrahim Al-Sinwar, born in 1962, is the leader of the Hamas movement and head of the Politburo in the Gaza Strip.
He is the founder of Hamas's security service, known as the Majd, which manages internal security matters, such as investigating suspected Israeli agents and tracking down Israeli intelligence and security officials.
Figure 4: Abdullah Barghouti
Barghouti was born in Kuwait in 1972 and moved to Jordan after the Second Gulf War in 1990. He holds Jordanian citizenship and then studied electrical engineering for three years at a South Korean university, learning to make explosives. He did not complete his studies because he had obtained a permit to enter Palestine.
No one around him knew he could make explosives until one day he took his cousin, Bilal Al-Barghouthi, to a remote area in the West Bank to demonstrate his skills. Bilar told his commander what he had witnessed, and Abdullah Barghouti was invited to join the Qassam Brigade.
In addition to making detonators, the engineer was also engaged in the manufacture of explosive devices and the production of toxic substances from potatoes. He set up a factory specializing in military products in a warehouse in his town.
Figure 5: Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail Abdel Salam Haniyeh, nicknamed Abu Al-Abd, was born in a Palestinian refugee camp.
He is the head of the political department of the Hamas movement and Prime Minister of the 10th Palestinian Government. He has served as Prime Minister of Palestine since 2006.
In 1989, Israel imprisoned him for three years, after which he was exiled along with some Hamas leaders to Marj al-Zuhur, a no-man's land between Israel and Lebanon. In 1992, he lived in dangerous conditions for a whole year.
After a year in exile, he returned to Gaza and cemented his position in 1997 by being appointed chief of staff for Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Hamas movement.
Figure 6: Khaled Meshaal
Khalid Meshaal, also known as Abu Al-Walid, was born in 1956 in the West Bank village of Silwad. He received his primary education there and then immigrated with his family to Kuwait, where he completed primary and secondary education.
Meshaal is considered one of the founders of the Hamas movement and has been a member of Hamas's Politburo since its inception. He chaired the movement's Politburo from 1996 to 2017 and was appointed leader after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 2004.
In 1997, Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, targeted him, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his assassination. Ten Mossad agents entered Jordan with forged Canadian passports, when Meshaal, a Jordanian citizen, was injected with poison as he walked on the streets of the capital, Amman.
Following the incident, the Jordanian authorities arrested two Mossad members. The late King Hussein of Jordan asked the Israeli prime minister for an antidote, Netanyahu refused, and then US President Bill Clinton intervened, Israel gave the antidote, adding political color to the assassination.
Figure 7: Mahmoud Zahar
Born in Gaza City in 1945 to a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother, Mahmoud Zahar spent his early childhood in the Egyptian city of Ismailia.
He received his primary and secondary education in Gaza and received a bachelor's degree in general medicine from Ain al-Shams University in Cairo in 1971 and a master's degree in surgery in 1976. After graduation, he worked as a doctor in hospitals in Gaza and Khan Younis until Israeli authorities fired him for his political stance.
Zahar is considered one of Hamas's most prominent leaders and a member of the movement's political leadership.
In 1988, Zahar spent six months in an Israeli jail, six months after the establishment of the Hamas movement. He was one of those deported by Israel to Marj Al-Zuhur in 1992, where he spent an entire year.
With the Hamas movement winning a majority in the 2005 legislative elections, Zahar served as foreign minister in a government formed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, after President Mahmoud Abbas announced the dissolution of the government following events that led to the division of Palestine.
