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INDEPTH: MIDDLE EAST
Key Hamas leaders
CBC News Online | January 27, 2006
Khaled Meshaal
 (CP Photo)
Meshaal first gained prominence within Hamas after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. He had been living in Kuwait, working as a physics teacher. After the invasion, he moved to Jordan and became director of international fundraising for Hamas.
Much of the money he raised went to social welfare programs run by Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel says a good chunk of the money went to suicide bombers. Meshaal denied that allegation.
In the late 1990s, Jordan closed down Hamas' office in Amman. Meshaal was jailed briefly before he left for Syria, where he assumed leadership of the group's office in Damascus.
Meshaal has been at the top of Israel's most-wanted list since he was promoted. He was the target of an assassination attempt in 1997, when Israeli agents – disguised as Canadian tourists – tried to poison him in Jordan. The attack so enraged King Hussein that he threatened to hang the Israelis who had been arrested.
In October 2005, Meshaal said Hamas had the right to resist Israeli occupation and to have a role in Palestinian political life at the same time.
Mahmoud al-Zahar
 (CP Photo)
Al-Zahar is listed as a hardliner, maintaining that there can be no negotiation with, or recognition of, Israel.
He was detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1996. He has been jailed by the Israelis several times and was among 400 Islamic activists deported by Israel to Lebanon. The group remained in Lebanon for a year. He survived an assassination attempt in 2005, but his son and a bodyguard were killed.
Hasson Youssef
Youssef is the most senior Hamas political figure in the West Bank. He has been jailed numerous times by Israel and spent the January 2006 Palestinian election campaign in a jail cell.
Still, he's considered a moderate. He's been called the most moderate Hamas leader in the Palestinian territories. Youssef has said that negotiations with Israel may be possible – but only under strict conditions.
Mohammad Deif
Deif is the commander of Hamas' military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades. Israel has long targeted him, accusing him of masterminding suicide attacks.
Deif was seriously wounded in an Israeli missile attack on his car on Sept. 27, 2002. Two of his bodyguards were killed and about 40 bystanders were wounded in the attack, which drew harsh criticism from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
An Israeli official later said Deif had survived the attack because Israel did not use more powerful weapons in the operation for fear of killing dozens of civilians.
Since the attack, Deif has lived in hiding. But he emerged in a video in August 2005 to congratulate Palestinian militant groups for "forcing Israel from Gaza."
Deif also warned the Palestinian Authority not to take the weapons militants "used to liberate Gaza."
Mohammed Abu Teir
 (CP Photo)
Later, he said the detention helped his campaign because it gave people a picture of what was happening in Jerusalem.
Jamila Shanti
Shanti was the leading woman candidate for Hamas in the Palestinian election. She holds a doctorate in English and taught at the Islamic University in Gaza before resigning to campaign for the elections.
She is a founder of the women's section in Hamas.
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