Key targets in Israel's operation include acting leader Khalil al-Hayya, former head Khaled Mashaal, and finance chief Zaher Jabarin. Israel on Tuesday carried out a targeted airstrike in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to assassinate several top members of the Hamas leadership. Key targets in this operation were Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, and Zaher Jabarin, whose fates are all unknown at the time of writing. But who are these three people and what roles do they have in Hamas?
Here is everything you need to know. Khalil al-Hayya is the acting leader of Hamas, having been part of the quinquevirate (five-member) leadership that made up Hamas's uppermost echelons in the wake of the assassination of Yahya Sinwar in October 2024.
Born in Gaza, Hayya has been a member of Hamas for decades and was a longtime close ally of Sinwar. This close relationship reportedly led him to act as Sinwar's main representative to the Hamas politburo overseas, which some sources attributed to Sinwar's frosty relationship with the terrorist organization's senior figures in exile. (Read More)