Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Palestinian group Hamas, was killed early Wednesday morning in Iran, the group said. This caused fears of a wider escalation in a region already shaken by Israel’s offensive in Gaza and a conflict getting worse in Lebanon.
The Revolutionary Guards of Iran confirmed Haniyeh’s death and said they were looking into it. He had just been to an event swearing in the new president of the country.
Another official news source in Iran, IRNA, confirmed that Haniyeh had been killed and said that one of his bodyguards had also been killed at their home in the city early Wednesday.
Israel didn’t say anything right away. The Israeli military said it was looking at the situation but hadn’t come up with any new safety rules for people.
The news came less than 24 hours after Israel said it had killed the Hezbollah leader it said was responsible for a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It looks like there will be less chance of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after this.
A top Hamas official told Reuters, “This killing of Brother Haniyeh by the Israeli occupation is a serious step up that is meant to break the will of Hamas.”
“We confirm that this escalation will not achieve its goals.” “Hamas is an idea and an organisation, not a person,” he said.
Zuhri said that Hamas would keep going in the same direction and added, “We are sure of victory.”
A person familiar with the meeting said that Iran’s top security body will meet to decide what to do about the death of Haniyeh, who was a close ally of Tehran.
Lloyd Austin, the secretary of defence for the US, said that the US would try to lower tensions but would also help protect Israel if it were struck.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, spoke out against Haniyeh’s death, and different groups in the occupied West Bank called for a general strike and large-scale protests.
Abbas is an enemy of Haniyeh, but he called the killing “cowardly.”
His office said in a statement, “President Mahmud Abbas of the State of Palestine strongly condemned the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling it a cowardly act and a serious escalation.”
“He told our people and their forces to stick together, trust each other, and fight back against the Israeli occupation.”
Abdul Salam, Haniyeh’s son, said that his father “alived four attempts on his life during his patriotic journey, and today Allah has granted him the martyrdom that he always wished for.”
“He worked hard to bring all Palestinian groups together and build national unity,” he said. “We promise that this murder will not stop the resistance; they will fight until freedom is achieved.”
Iranian state media said that Mohsen Rezaie, who used to be the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said that Israel would “pay a heavy price” for killing Haniyeh in Tehran.
Haniyeh, who usually lives in Qatar, has been the face of the Palestinian group’s foreign diplomacy during the offensive in Gaza that began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7. Three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike during this time.
The office of the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court asked for an arrest order for him for alleged war crimes at the same time that it did the same thing for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Haniyeh has been the leader of Hamas since 2017. He has been moving between Turkey and Doha, the capital of Qatar, to avoid the travel restrictions in the blockaded Gaza Strip and to talk to Hamas’ partner Iran or to negotiate a ceasefire.
Haniyeh was killed at a time when Israel’s campaign in Gaza is almost 10 months old and shows no signs of ending. The conflict has shook the Middle East and threatened to spread to other parts of the region.
Families of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza are angry at Netanyau’s government, and demand from around the world for a ceasefire is growing. However, the talks that Egypt and Qatar were trying to start seem to have broken down.
At the same time, there is a greater chance of a war between Israel and Hezbollah since the attack on the Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 children in a Druze village and then killed Fuad Shukr, the top Hezbollah leader.
On October 7, fighters led by Hamas broke through security barriers around Gaza and attacked nearby Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages in Gaza. This was the start of the war.
In response, Israel began an ongoing air and ground offensive in the densely populated coastal enclave. This has killed over 39,000 people and put more than 2 million people in a very bad situation in terms of food and water.
Condemnations Keep Coming In
A lot of Middle Eastern countries were sorry that Haniyeh was killed, but they also said that it would make it much harder to stop Israel’s attack on Gaza.
Pakistan strongly disagreed with the killing of Haniyeh and sent its sympathies to his family and the people of Palestine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings, no matter what the reasons are.”
“We are deeply shocked that this careless act happened at the same time as the inauguration of the President of Iran. Many important people from other countries, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan, were there.”
“Pakistan is very worried about Israel’s growing meddling in the area.” Its most recent actions are a dangerous step up in an area that is already unstable and hurt peace efforts.
In a message that her party shared, Senator Sherry Rehman spoke out against the killing. She said Israel had sent a message that “no one can stop us” through it.
The important politician said that Israel’s “serious attack on Tehran’s soil shows that it is not serious about talks and a ceasefire” in Gaza.
“This is an attack on both Hamas and Iran’s sovereignty,” Rehman said, adding that the move could make things worse in the Middle East.
President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, who was just sworn in, said on X, “The Islamic Republic of Iran will defend its territorial integrity, honour, pride, and dignity, and make the terrorist invaders regret their cowardly action.”
The killing was called a “heinous crime” by the foreign ministry of Qatar, where Haniyeh worked and which has been mediating the clash in Gaza.
The ministry called the attack in Tehran a “dangerous escalation” and a “clear violation of international and humanitarian law.”
“This killing and Israel’s careless actions of constantly attacking civilians in Gaza will make the area more chaotic and make peace less likely.”
Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, said he was “deeply saddened” to hear that Haniyeh had been “martyred.” He also said that Haniyeh had become a symbol of Palestinian defiance.
Fidan shared a picture of himself and Haniyeh on the social media site X and wrote, “He had devoted his life to the Palestinian cause and to bringing peace and tranquilly to Palestine.”
The foreign ministry of Turkey also sent its condolences to the “Palestinian people who have given hundreds of thousands of martyrs like Haniyeh so that they may live in peace in their own homeland.”
“The attack also aims to make the war in Gaza worse for people in the area.” “Our region will have much bigger problems if the rest of the world doesn’t do something to stop Israel,” the Turkish government said in a statement.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, “It is an absolutely unacceptable political killing, and this will make things worse.”
Vice-President of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, said that there would be a “sudden escalation of mutual hatred” in the Middle East.
China also spoke out against the killing, with Lin Jian, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, saying, “We are deeply concerned about the event and strongly oppose and condemn the assassination.”
Malaysia’s foreign ministry said, “We strongly condemn all acts of violence, including targeted killings, and call on all peace-loving nations to join us in condemning these acts.”
The Taliban, who run Afghanistan, said that Haniyeh’s death was “a great loss.”
Hezbollah and Israel are getting more and more angry with each other. In a statement, they said that the killing would “make their resolve stronger in facing the Zionist enemy.”
The group called Haniyeh “one of the great resistance leaders of our time” because he bravely fought against the Zionist rule and the American project to take over the world.
The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, said that the attack on Haniyeh was a “heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”
The Thai politician and former Gaza hostage negotiator Areepen Uttarasin said that the killing was “very serious because it happened in Iran.” He said, “It shows that Hamas’s enemies can strike anywhere.”
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