Israel on Tuesday carried out a targeted airstrike in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to assassinate several top members of the Hamas leadership.

Key targets in this operation were Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, and Zaher Jabarin, whose fates are all unknown at the time of writing. 

But who are these three people and what roles do they have in Hamas?

Here is everything you need to know.

Who is Khalil al-Hayya?

Khalil al-Hayya is the acting leader of Hamas, having been part of the quinquevirate (five-member) leadership that made up Hamas's uppermost echelons in the wake of the assassination of Yahya Sinwar in October 2024.

Born in Gaza, Hayya has been a member of Hamas for decades and was a longtime close ally of Sinwar. This close relationship reportedly led him to act as Sinwar's main representative to the Hamas politburo overseas, which some sources attributed to Sinwar's frosty relationship with the terrorist organization's senior figures in exile.

This position also allowed Hayya to foster strong ties with some of Hamas's allies, such as Iran.

In 2022, he led a Hamas delegation to Damascus to mend ties with former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, which were broken a decade earlier when the movement endorsed the largely Sunni uprising against Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect.

Hayya has been very vocal about his support of the October 7 massacre, saying that the attack succeeded in bringing the Palestinian issue back into international focus. However, he has also said it was meant to be a limited operation to capture "a number of soldiers" to swap for jailed Palestinians.

"But the Zionist army unit completely collapsed," he said in comments published by the Hamas-linked Palestinian Information Center, referring to the IDF.

He further climbed the ranks of the organization in 2024 following the IDF assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri.

In December 2024, Hayya also reportedly took over leadership of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

But the most public and notable role Hayya has played in Hamas is as the terrorist group's chief negotiator, being the primary figure attending the many hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations. 

Throughout his time in Hamas, Hayya has survived numerous assassination attempts against him, some of which reportedly resulted in the deaths of many of his relatives. 

Who is Khaled Mashaal?

Khaled Mashaal is a longtime pillar of Hamas and had served as the organization's leader for decades, with him being replaced by Ismail Haniyeh in 2017.

Despite no longer being Hamas's leader, Mashaal has retained a high profile in the organization and has stepped in as acting leader on more than one occasion over the course of the Israel-Hamas War. 

Despite having served in Hamas for so long, Mashaal has not lived in Palestinian territory since before the organization was founded - apart from a few brief visits, with the Mashaal family having fled the country following the Six Day War. 

When Hamas was established in 1987, Mashaal led the group's activities in Kuwait and took a seat on the Hamas politburo when it was founded in the 1990s, soon becoming its chairman.

When Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was killed by Israel in 2004, Mashaal was recognized as the true leader of the organization. Under his leadership, Hamas gained widespread popularity, beating Fatah and winning a majority in the 2006 Palestinian elections. 

Mashaal also played a major role in negotiating the prisoner swap deal that saw the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in 2012.

Numerous assassination attempts have also been made against Mashaal over the years, including a very high-profile Mossad poisoning attempt in 1997, which sparked a diplomatic crisis with Jordan.

Even after his retirement in 2017, Mashaal retained an important role in the organization. Following the killing of Sinwar, he was one of the Hamas officials to join the quinquevirate leadership to help lead the organization.

Who is Zaher Jabarin?

Zaher Jabarin is the longtime leader of the Hamas Financial Bureau and was responsible for managing the intricate financial network and investment portfolio. In this capacity, he was the man who made sure the money flowed, keeping the terrorist organization running and pumping it in for their various operations. 

In the late 1980s, during Hamas's early years, Jabarin co-founded the organization's West Bank military forces. In this capacity, he was considered responsible for the many killings of IDF soldiers and police during the First Intifada. 

Arrested by Israeli forces in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison, Jabarin was freed in 2011 during the Gilad Schalit prisoner swap deal. After this, he left the country, setting himself up in Instanbul to manage the Financial Bureau, as well as the Office of Martyrs, Wounded, and Prisoners.