Poison and rockets were used to eliminate them/ Which Hamas leaders have been targeted for assassination by Israel?

The head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last month, the Israeli military said today, its eighth attempt to kill him.

Deif is suspected of being one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant movement, which sent the Gaza war now into its tenth month. The operation raised fears of wider escalation in a region rocked by the Gaza war and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Israel has sought to show that it can reach anyone, anywhere. He has killed or attempted to kill Hamas leaders and key operatives since the group was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Two years later, Hamas carried out its first attacks on Israeli military targets, including the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers. Below is a list of Palestinian leaders and operatives who were targeted by the most powerful and sophisticated military in the Middle East.

The elusive Islamist militant mastermind behind a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks nicknamed "The Engineer" was killed in then-PLO-ruled Gaza. He died on January 5, 1996, when his cell phone exploded in his hands. The Palestinians blamed Israel, which refused to accept responsibility. Hamas retaliated in four suicide attacks that killed 59 people in three Israeli cities over nine days in February and March.

Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal became world famous in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a failed assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman.

The strike, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so enraged Jordan's then-king, Hussein, that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers and voiding Jordan's peace treaty with Israel unless an antidote was delivered.

Israel did so, and also agreed to release Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to kill him seven years later in Gaza.

Israel killed the quadriplegic co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed, in a helicopter missile attack on March 22, 2004 as he was leaving a mosque in Gaza City. Israel attempted to kill him in 2003 while he was at the home of a Hamas member in Gaza.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza shouting calls for revenge and threatening to "send death to every house" in Israel. His death led to widespread protests and condemnation from the Palestinian territories and the wider Muslim world and marked a significant escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, underscoring the deep tensions and challenges of achieving peace in the region.

An Israeli helicopter-borne missile attack on a car in Gaza City killed Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi on April 17, 2004. Two bodyguards were also killed. The leadership of Hamas was hidden and the identity of Rantis's successor was kept secret. His assassination came shortly after he had taken over the leadership of Hamas in Gaza following the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Hamas master bomber Adnan Al-Ghoul was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 21, 2004. Ghoul was number 2 in Hamas's military wing and known as the "Father of Qassam" rocket, an improvised missile often fired in Israeli cities.

A cleric widely regarded as one of Hamas's most hard-line political leaders has called for renewed suicide bombings inside Israel. Two of his four wives and seven of his children were also killed in the bombing of the Jabalya refugee camp on January 1, 2009. Days later, an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas Interior Minister Saeed Seyyam in the Gaza Strip on January 15. Seyyam was in charge of 13,000 Hamas police and security men.

An Israeli drone strike in Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh killed Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri on January 2, 2024. Arouri was also the founder of Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades.

Ismail Haniyeh was killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group said. Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh's death, hours after he attended the swearing-in ceremony for the country's new president, and said it was investigating.

Iranian media reported that he was staying in "a special residence for war veterans north of Tehran". Iranian NourNews said Haniyeh's residence was hit by an aerial projectile.

Haniyeh was killed by a rocket that hit him "directly" at a state-run guesthouse where he was staying, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told a news conference in Tehran, citing witnesses who were with Haniyeh.

The Israeli military said Deif was killed after warplanes struck the Khan Younis area on July 13, following an intelligence assessment. The elusive Deif had survived seven assassination attempts on Israel.

Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Israeli announcement, which came as crowds gathered in Tehran for the funeral procession of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Deif is believed to have been one of the organizers of the Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza, now in its 300th day. /  Reuters .