Hamas Continues Struggle After Ismail Haniyeh's Death, His Term Of Office Will Be Completed Next Year

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh. (Source: Presidency of The Republic of Turkiye)

JAKARTA - Senior Hamas officials confirmed that the Palestinian militant group would continue its struggle, after the death of Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh.

Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack in Tehran, Iran. He died along with a bodyguard. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran's elected president Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.

"Hamas is a concept and an institution, not a person per person. Hamas will continue to be on this path regardless of sacrifice and we are confident in victory," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.

"The killings carried out by the Israeli colonialists against Brother Haniyeh are a major escalation aimed at breaking the wishes of our people and achieving false goals. We emphasize that this escalation will fail to achieve its goals," he said.

Meanwhile, Middle East political observer Faisal Assegaf said Haniyeh's term of office would end next year.

"Hamas already has a mechanism for choosing a leader. The general chairman is a four-year position. Haniyeh has two terms and his term of office should end next year," Assegaf explained to VOI.

He said, the Head of the Political Bureau in Doha held by Haniyeh is the same as the general chairman. There is also the head of the political bureau for Gaza, the West Bank, to Diaspora.

Quoted from Haaretz, Haniyeh was first elected for the position in 2017. He was elected for the second period in August 2021.

Faisal said this event would most likely cause the Gaza war to continue for more than a year. It will also have an impact on the ceasefire that is being worked on, while the fate of the hostages in Gaza is also threatened.

"(Israelian PM Benjamin) Netanyahu failed to achieve the goal of the Gaza War, could crawl up his popularity for killing Haniyeh," he said.