Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh is a senior political leader of Hamas and formerly one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority. Haniyeh became Prime Minister after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah–Hamas conflict, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued to exercise prime ministerial authority in the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. His parents became refugees, after they fled their homes near what is now Ashkelon, Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He attended United Nations-run schools and in 1987, graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a degree in Arabic literature. While at university he had become involved with Hamas. From 1985 to 1986 he was head of the students' council representing the Muslim Brotherhood. He also played as a midfielder in the Islamic Association football team. He graduated at about the same time as the First Intifada against the Israeli occupation started in the Gaza Strip. He participated in protests and was given a short prison sentence by Israeli authorities. He was detained by Israel again in 1988 and imprisoned for six months. In 1989, he was imprisoned for three years. Following his release in 1992, Israel deported him to Lebanon with senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Mahmoud Zahhar and 400 other activists. The activists stayed at Marj al-Zahour in Southern Lebanon for over a year where according to the BBC, Hamas "received unprecedented media exposure and became known throughout the world". A year later, he returned to Gaza and was appointed as Dean of the Islamic University.

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