Who is Khaled Meshaal, set to be Hamas chief after Ismail Haniyeh ‘assassinated’?

On Wednesday, Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed in Iran's capital Tehran, apparently by Israel.

Hamas is likely to pick senior member Khaled Meshaal as its new leader after Wednesday's ‘assassination’ of Ismail Haniyeh, apparently by Israel, in Iran's capital, Tehran, where Haniyeh attended the swearing-in of Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's new President.

FILE - Khaled Mashaal, at the time, leader of the militant group Hamas, that has governed Gaza since a 2007 takeover, speaks during a speech held in Doha, Qatar, on Aug. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal, File)

Khalil al-Hayya, another senior official of the militant group that runs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, could also be its new chief. Mashaal, however, is believed to be the frontrunner.

Who is Khaled Meshaal?

(1.) Meshaal was born on May 28, 1956, in Silwad, near Ramallah in West Bank. At the age of 15, he joined the Egypt-based Sunni Islamist organisation Muslim Brotherhood, which became instrumental in the 1987 formation of Hamas.

(2.) In 1992, the former teacher became a founding member of the militant group's politburo, which he also headed between 1996 and 2017, stepping down at the end of his term limit, and was succeeded by Haniyeh.

(3.) The 68-year-old has mainly operated from exile; from 2004 to 2012, he ran the group from Syria's capital, Damascus, and now lives in both Doha and Cairo, the capital cities of Qatar and Egypt, respectively.

(4.) In 1997, he was injected with poison by Israeli agents outside his office in Amman, the capital of Jordan. This led to a diplomatic crisis between Jordan and Israel.

(5.) As its political leader in exile, Meshaal represented Hamas at meetings with foreign governments around the world, unhindered by Israel's tight travel restriction that affected other leaders of the group.