Assassinating Hamas leaders scores points but is unlikely to produce victory

By James M. Dorsey

The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is about more than Israel’s targeting of the group’s officials whenever and wherever an opportunity arises.

Known as a ‘pragmatist’ and a ‘moderate’ within Hamas, Mr. Haniyeh’s killing was as much about achieving Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas militarily and politically as it was about quashing any chance that a post-war Hamas would potentially be more accepting of a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Construction company owner Danny Makhlouf recalls employing Mr. Haniyeh as a construction worker at 16 in 1978 and taking him into his family in Ashkelon, from where Mr. Haniyeh’s parents fled to Gaza in 1963.

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