Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in Iran, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group¡¯s international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

But despite the rhetoric, he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared with the more hard-line members of the Iran-backed group inside Gaza.

Appointed to the Hamas top job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and Qatar¡¯s capital, Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in cease-fire talks or to talk to Hamas¡¯ ally Iran.