Who was Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader and ex-PM killed in Tehran?

Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed after his residence was targeted in Tehran. In statement, Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in "treacherous Zionist raid on his residence".

Haniyeh, 62, was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City in 1962 and joined Hamas in late 1980s during First Intifada (uprising), becoming one of its prominent members. 

Haniyeh was arrested by Israeli authorities in 1988 and was imprisoned for six months for his participation in the first intifada against Israeli occupation. 

After remaining behind bars in Israel for three years, he was exiled in 1992 to a land between Israel and Lebanon, along with several other Hamas leaders.

After a year in exile, Haniyeh returned to Gaza and became the personal secretary of Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin, who was assassinated in 2003.

Haniyeh rose quickly through Hamas' leadership ranks, being appointed part of a secret “collective leadership” in 2004 to the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2006.

Haniyeh served as the leader of the de facto government in the Gaza Strip. In 2017, he was selected as the chief of Hamas' political bureau, replacing Khaled Meshaal.

Haniyeh was designated as a "global terrorist" by the United States in 2017.  He left Gaza Strip in 2019 and began living in Turkey and Qatar to represent Hamas abroad.