1. Khaled Mashal has covered duties as the acting leader of Hamas twice, from July 2024 until August 2024 and since October 2024, after both leaders were assassinated by Israel.
38 Facts About Khaled Mashal
1. 2.
Khaled Mashal was regarded as one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas since the death of Ahmed Yassin, alongside Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar.
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Khaled Mashal has since lived in exile in other parts of the Arab world.
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Khaled Mashal became the recognized head of Hamas after Israel assassinated both Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in the spring of 2004.
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Khaled Mashal stepped down as Hamas' politburo chairman at the end of his term limit in 2017.
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Khaled Mashal was born in 1956 in Silwad in the Jordanian-ruled West Bank.
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Khaled Mashal's father, Abd al-Qadir Mashal, was a farmer and had moved to Kuwait in 1957 to work in agriculture and as an imam.
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Khaled Mashal's half-brother is the former Al-Sakhra Band singer and former Dallas Public Works and Transportation Department engineer Mufid Abdulqader.
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Khaled Mashal entered the prestigious Abdullah al-Salim Secondary School in the early 1970s and joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1971.
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Khaled Mashal enrolled in Kuwait University in 1974, and soon became involved in student politics.
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Khaled Mashal headed the Islamic Justice list in the General Union of Palestinian Students elections in 1977.
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Khaled Mashal graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1978.
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Khaled Mashal was able to travel extensively in both Israel and the occupied territories.
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Khaled Mashal was a founding member of Hamas' politburo, and was elected chairman in 1996, following the imprisonment of his predecessor Mousa Abu Marzook in 1995.
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Two of them waited at the entrance of the Hamas offices in Jordan's capital Amman, and, as Khaled Mashal walked into his office, one of them came up from behind and held a device to Khaled Mashal's left ear that transmitted a fast-acting poison.
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Khaled Mashal's bodyguards were suspicious prior to the attack and were able to chase the agents down and capture them.
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Khaled Mashal was rushed to a Jordanian hospital where his condition rapidly deteriorated.
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The doctors at King Hussein Medical Center, where Khaled Mashal lay in a coma, observed Khaled Mashal's symptoms to be consistent with an opioid overdose.
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Khaled Mashal was involved in negotiating a prisoner exchange deal which released captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
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On 10 July 2006, Khaled Mashal stated Shalit was a prisoner of war and demanded a prisoner swap for his release which Israel refused.
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On 2 October 2009, after the swap of 20 Palestinian prisoners for a proof-of-life video, Khaled Mashal vowed to capture more soldiers in order to secure the release of more Palestinian prisoners.
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In February 2012, as the Syrian civil war progressed, Khaled Mashal left Syria and returned to Qatar.
23.
In December 2012, following the eight-day conflict between Israel and Hamas and the negotiated truce, Khaled Mashal visited Gaza for the first time, beginning a four-day-long visit to the territory, for the 25th anniversary of Hamas's founding.
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Khaled Mashal resigned as chairman of the politburo in 2017 and was succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh, a Gaza strip resident and leader of the Hamas-dominated Gaza strip government.
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Just prior to the handover, Khaled Mashal presented the 2017 Hamas charter in Doha, in an effort to seal his legacy and commit those coming after him to the same policies.
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Khaled Mashal believes that US Middle East policy is hypocritical and not about democracy.
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Khaled Mashal does not believe that there is a contradiction between Hamas' and religious diversity:.
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Khaled Mashal believes that peace with Israel requires two things: that the Palestinian refugees that fled from, or were expelled by, Israeli forces in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence in which the Jewish State was established are allowed to return and that Israel withdraws from the territories it occupied in the 1967 war.
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Khaled Mashal later suggested a 10-year-truce if Israel withdrew to the 1967 border.
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Khaled Mashal considered this a proof of recognition: "We have offered a truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, a truce of 10 years as a proof of recognition".
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Khaled Mashal was a vocal critic of the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, often refusing to follow directives issued by the PA regarding ceasefires with Israel.
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Khaled Mashal was considered a key force behind this policy, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
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However, Khaled Mashal did attend Arafat's funeral, in Cairo on 12 November 2004.
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Khaled Mashal believed that by blockading Gaza, Israel hoped to increase the suffering of the population so that they would turn against Hamas.
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Khaled Mashal rejected the Israeli claim that the blockade was necessary for security reasons.
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Khaled Mashal contended that the blockade was in violation of international law.
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Khaled Mashal acknowledged that Hamas predicted the major consequences of the attack, stating that loss of Palestinian lives is a necessary sacrifice in their struggle for freedom.
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Khaled Mashal married to Amal Saleh Al-Boureni in 1980 or 1981 and is the father of three daughters and four sons.