Palestinians in West Bank want unity after Haniyeh assassination

Despite fears of region-wide instability, the occupied territory saw little public anger after the killing Hamas leader

Palestinians wave flags and chant slogans in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on July 31, 2024, during a demonstration denouncing the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. AFP

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Barely a few steps into Jenin’s refugee camp, Saleh Shraim sits in a small shop that his son, Yousef, helped set up before he was killed by the Israeli army in March 2023. He was 29.

“He founded the Hamas battalion in the camp around the beginning of last year. Like Haniyeh, he died for Hamas and the Palestinians.”

Pointing to a poster of his son above the till which shows a young man carrying a gun while sitting on a white horse, Mr Shraim says “the moment I learned about the assassination I saw my son”, before praising Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday in what is widely believed to have been an Israeli strike.

“Haniyeh was a political figure, not a military one. He was trying his best to get reconciliation between the factions,” Mr Shraim says.

Wearing a faded badge with his son's face, the father says he wants peace and an end to the horrors since October 7.

“What is the point of his killing Haniyeh? Israel killed Ahmed Yassin, then Arafat, then Rantisi, then Saleh Al Arouri. This has always been their policy, but has it changed anything? Resistance is an idea, not a person. Will these assassinations stop these young boys that walk past my shop joining the resistance? No, of course not,” he added.

Mr Shraim says he has two children in Israeli prisons and worries the recent escalations would impact the prospect of ending the war.

“Where does this leave the peace talks? Where does this leave the Israeli hostages in Gaza,” he says, “The same way I want to see my sons out of prison, I also want the hostages out. As a father who has lost children, I understand what the families are going through. Everything is a mess.

“Our best reaction as Palestinians after this killing would be unity, something I hope Palestinian leaders realise and which Haniyeh was working towards politically” he says. “Israel wants to divide us. We cannot let that happen. We will find another Haniyeh.”

Everyone The National spoke to on Wednesday wanted Mr Haniyeh’s legacy to be unity.

A little further into the camp, Islamic Jihad member and internet cafe owner Khalil Al Saudi, 30, agrees.

“Forget about our weapons, we beat Israel with unity,” he said as young children on their summer holiday played on the computers.

As the young boys shouted in excitement, a group of teenage boys smoked cigarettes while one of them played a video of his friend being shot by the Israeli army.

“We’re smoking because there’s nothing else to do,” one of them said. “Our life here is not in this world, it’s in heaven.”

Mr Al Saudi is also pessimistic about the future.

“That is our fate. We don’t think about marriage, a future. I was born in 1994 and I have nothing to say for my 30 years of life. What’s the point in building a house or a family,” he said.

“My brother is martyr, my two cousins. I have at least 10 friends who are dead.”

“Haniyeh can be replaced. We lost a politician, but we can get new ones.”

Resistance and unity

Outside the camp security guard Amin Al Khazem patrolled a mall as he waited for a march in solidarity with Mr Haniyeh that evening.

His son, Nidal Al Khazem, was killed alongside Yousef Shraim, even though he belonged to the Islamic Jihad faction, not Hamas.

“Yes, people are tired, but the resistance is never finished,” he said.

“What’s most important for me is unity. I’d rather ten dead Palestinians from Israeli bullets than one Palestinian injured because of a bullet from another Palestinian.”

When Jenin’s demonstration eventually kicked off, an armed commander from Islamic Jihad was filmed telling attendees that “we at the Jenin Battalion congratulate our brothers in Hamas about the martyrdom of the Sheikh, the Mujahed Ismail Haniyeh the great Islamic and Arab national leader”.

“We tell the enemy that we in the Jenin Battalion will continue on the path of resistance until the liberation of the Al Aqsa Mosque,” he concluded, while Hamas flags waved in the background.

The rage was palpable, but numbers were small.

Nablus, a Hamas stronghold had the biggest crowds, saw crowds numbering only about 500 people. Political capital Ramallah had about 250. Tulkarem, a city in the headlines a great deal during recent months as Israel tries to crack down on a wave of militancy there, had less than 100.

Mr Al Khazem suspected the numbers earlier in the day were small not because of Haniyeh's personal reputation, but because of what he represented for Palestinian resistance, particularly a young generation that has given up on politics and sees armed struggle as the only option to engage Israel and keep the Palestinian cause alive.

“Maybe the crowds would have been bigger for a military leader, someone like [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar] not a political one like Haniyeh,” he said.

Away from the quiet anger of Jenin, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, who worked with Mr Haniyeh on a number of occasions to unite Palestinian politics, agreed with the Jenin residents about the need for unity.

“I remember Haniyeh very well as a humble human being. Very kind, very tolerant and very quiet. He was a strong leader, but there was also something very human about him,” he told The National.

“I think Israel has killed a peacemaker. They are killing everyone who can achieve peace and clearly do not want a political process. That is the message they sent,” he said

“After his killing, but also after the tens of thousands killed in Gaza, we have to be unified.”