Who are the key leaders of the organization that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared to the Islamic State group?

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader

Haniyeh, 60, was elected head of Hamas’s political bureau in 2017, succeeding Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure in 2006 when he became prime minister of Palestine following a Hamas victory in that year’s parliamentary elections.

However, ties with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’ Fatah movement were short-lived, and in 2007 Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip after forcibly expelling the president’s supporters.

Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lives in voluntary exile, dividing his time between Turkey and Qatar.

He has long campaigned for reconciliation between the armed resistance against Israel and a political position within Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

Haniyeh maintains good relations with the heads of various Palestinian factions, including rivals.

In his youth, the Hamas leader, known for his calmness, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s student wing at the Islamic University of Gaza.

He joined Hamas in 1987, when the militant group was founded at the outbreak of the first Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that lasted until 1993.

During this period, Haniyeh was arrested several times by Israel and then expelled to southern Lebanon for six months.

In footage broadcast by Hamas-linked media last Saturday, Haniyeh was seen watching television footage of Hamas’ attack on Israel before joining other Hamas leaders in a prayer to “thank Allah for this victory. ”

Mohammed Deif, the ‘chief of staff’

The elusive Deif, who leads Hamas’ armed wing the Ezzdine al-Qassam Brigades, is Israel’s public enemy number one and a man the Israelis have tried to kill at least six times. He has been on the list of ‘international terrorists’ maintained by the United States since 2015.

Deif is considered by Hamas to be the group’s “chief of staff” and was the mastermind behind Saturday’s attack. It was he who announced in an audio message the beginning of Hamas’ attack on Israel, called the “Al-Aqsa Flood”.

In the recording, Deif is heard saying that “the enemy positions and fortifications were targeted by 5,000 rockets and projectiles during the first 20 minutes” of the attack.

Hamas, which released the audio message, also posted a photo of Deif in the shadows, as usual, so that he cannot be identified.

Only a few low-quality photographs of Deif are known to exist, the most recent being taken about twenty years ago.

His hiding place is unknown and he is considered a master of disguise, able to adapt perfectly to the population.

Deif, whose real name is Mohammed Diab al-Masri, was born in 1965 in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza.

He has been involved with Hamas since the 1980s and has taken part in many of its operations, including the kidnapping of soldiers and suicide bombings.

He was appointed head of Hamas’s military wing in 2002, after the death of his predecessor, Salah Shehade, in an attack.

Two years earlier, at the start of the second intifada, Deif had escaped or been released from a prison of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.

Shortly after he was appointed military head of Hamas, Israel launched its fifth attempt to assassinate him in Gaza, in an attack that seriously injured him, with unconfirmed reports suggesting he was paralyzed.

The last time Israel tried to kill Deif was in 2014, when it launched an airstrike on Gaza, killing his wife and one of the couple’s children.

Deif’s enemies called him “a cat with nine lives”, while Palestinians consider him a living legend.

Yahya Sinwar, the ‘strongman’ of Gaza

A former commander of Hamas’s military wing, Sinwar, 61, was elected head of the militant group in Gaza in 2017.

He rose through the ranks of Hamas as a fierce defender of the armed struggle against Israel and is considered by the group to be its “minister of defense.”

An aura of mystery surrounds the slight, Hebrew-speaking Sinwar, who knows Israel well, having spent 23 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap involving French-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held captive by Hamas.

Like Deif, he is also on the US list of wanted ‘international terrorists’.

On Thursday, Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht said the Israeli offensive in Gaza is targeting key Hamas leaders, including Sinwar.