Major international figures who died in 2024
Numerous major international figures died in 2024, ranging from Putin critic Alexei Navalny to Israel’s top foes in the Middle East.
Here are five of the biggest names to have lost their lives this year:
Alexei Navalny – Feb. 16
Alexei Navalny — a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin — died at a penal colony in Siberia on Feb. 16. Russian officials at the time said Navalny reported feeling unwell following a walk before losing consciousness and dying.
Navalny was being held at the IK-3 penal colony, also known as “Polar Wolf,” in Kharp, which is considered one of the country’s toughest prisons. The 47-year-old had been serving a prison term on charges he says were politically motivated.
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Navalny previously was the victim of an alleged assassination attempt in 2020, when he suffered poisoning from a suspected Novichok nerve agent.
In August, Navalny’s widow pushed back on a report from investigators claiming he died as a result of an irregular heartbeat and a combination of diseases, calling the findings a “rather pathetic attempt to hide what happened — a murder.”
Ebrahim Raisi – May 19
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials died on May 19 after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.
Raisi, a 63-year-old nicknamed the “Butcher of Tehran,” previously was sanctioned by the first Trump administration for his role in carrying out the massacre of 5,000 Iranian political prisoners in 1988 and for his role in the clerical regime’s slaughter of 1,500 Iranian demonstrators in 2019.
An official investigation into the helicopter crash later revealed it was caused by challenging climatic and atmospheric conditions.
Ismail Haniyeh – July 31
Ismail Haniyeh, a 62-year-old who led the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ political bureau, was killed by an airstrike in Tehran on July 31 after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israel was quickly blamed after pledging to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
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Haniyeh was detained by Israeli troops in 1989 for Hamas membership and spent three years in prison. In 1992, he was deported to Lebanon with a group of top Hamas officials and founders. He later returned to the Gaza Strip following the 1993 interim peace accords, which were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Since 2018, the U.S. had designated Haniyeh as a terrorist, saying he was closely linked to Hamas’ military wing.
Hassan Nasrallah – Sept. 27
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27.
The 64-year-old was inside Hezbollah’s central headquarters.
The IDF said Nasrallah founded Hezbollah in 1982 and “initiated, planned and executed thousands of terrorist attacks against the citizens of Israel, Jewish communities and people around the world.”
“Under his leadership, Lebanon became an armed base with advanced precision weapons of various ranges aimed at Israel and the entire region,” it added.
Yahya Sinwar – Oct. 16
Yahya Sinwar died on Oct. 16 during an Israeli military operation inside the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is widely seen as being behind the massacre of Israeli civilians carried out by thousands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
The 61-year-old was referred to by Israel as “The Butcher of Khan Younis” for his violent and cruel torture methods against his enemies, both Israeli and Palestinian.
The Israel Defense Forces had long targeted Sinwar, referring to him as a “dead man walking.” For months, he remained hidden in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar “ran away in fear from our soldiers” prior to being killed.
Fox News’ Landon Mion, Benjamin Weinthal, Morgan Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.