He lost two children, daughter -in -law and three grandchildren in Israeli attacks on Gaza. I was with Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, when he was murdered
Khalil al-Hayya, a high Hamas leader targeted by Israel’s attack at Patar on Tuesday, became a relief figure in the lead of the Palestinian terrorist group since Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar were killed last year.
The attack on Doha, which was “planned for months”, targeted Hamas’s main leaders in Qatar. Khalil al-Hayya, the main negotiator of Hamas exiled at Qatar, survived but his son and advisor were killed.
At the center of ceasefire negotiations during the war that began two years ago, Hayya has been seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Iran in July 2024.
Hayya has been part of a five -member leadership council that has been running Hamas since Sinwar was killed by Israel in October in Gaza.
A native of the Gaza Strip, Hayya has lost several close family members – including the eldest son – in Israeli attacks, being a veteran member of the Islamist group.
In 2007, an Israeli air strike hit his family home in the Sáiyeh neighborhood of Gaza, killing several of his family members, and during the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel the house of Hayya’s eldest son was bombarded, killing him, as well as his wife and three of his children.
Maintains good relations with Iran, a vital source of weaponry and financing for Hamas, and was closely involved in the group’s efforts to intermediate several ceasefes with Israel. He played a central role at the end of the 2014 conflict and again in the attempt to end the current war in Gaza.
He was born in the Gaza Strip in 1960 and has been part of Hamas since its foundation in 1987. In the early 1980s, Hayya joined the Muslim Brotherhood-the Sunni Islamist movement from which Hamas emerged-along with Haniyeh and Sinwar, according to Hamas sources cited by Reuters.
In Gaza, he was several times detained by Israel. He left the track for several years to serve as responsible for Hamas in relations with the Arab and Islamic world, being based in Qatar for this purpose.
Hayya was with Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, when he was murdered.
Beginning of the war
Hayya was quoted to say that the October 7 attacks, which triggered the war in Gaza, had been planned as a Hamas operation to capture “some soldiers” to exchange them for detained Palestinians.
“But the Zionist army unit collapsed completely,” he said in statements published by the Hamas Palestinian Information Center, referring to the Israeli Armed Forces.
Hamas -led militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 to 7 October 2023, according to Israeli numbers. More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliation offensive in Gaza since then, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Hayya stated that the attack was able to bring the Palestinian issue back to international focus.
Hayya led Hamas delegations in Israeli mediated negotiations to try to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza that included an exchange of Hamas Israelites for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
He also performed other high profile political functions for Hamas: by 2022, he led a Damascus delegation to restore relations with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who had been cut a decade earlier.
