Israel killed Haniyeh in Iran, says Hamas
POLITICAL chief of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh was slain in Iran on Wednesday, said the Palestinian resistance group, raising worries of a further escalation of violence in a region already unsettled by Israel’s offensive in Gaza and a growing crisis in Lebanon, Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also confirmed Haniyeh’s death, hours after he attended swearing-in of Iran’s new president, and said they were conducting an investigation. IRNA verified Hamas leader’s death and added that one of his bodyguards was also killed in his Tehran home early in the morning.
Israel made no immediate comment. The Israeli military stated that it was undertaking a scenario assessment but had not released any new security directives for civilians.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that Washington would endeavour to reduce tensions, but that Israel would be defended if attacked.
The announcement, which came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah leader it blamed for a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, appears to have hampered any imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
“This assassination of Brother Haniyeh by the Israeli occupation is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas,” top Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
He stated that Hamas would continue on its current path and expressed confidence in their chances of ultimate victory. Iran’s top security authority is likely to convene to determine Tehran’s strategy in response to the killing of Haniyeh, according to an official.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Haniyeh’s assassination, while Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank called for a general strike and large-scale protests.
Mohsen Rezaie, a former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, warned that Israel would “pay a heavy price” for assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran, Iranian state television said.
Haniyeh, who was ordinarily stationed in Qatar, had become the face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy while the offensive sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 has been raging in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli bombardment.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office requested an arrest warrant for Haniyeh for alleged war crimes at the same time as it issued a similar request for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Haniyeh was appointed Hamas’s top leader in 2017, and he has moved between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, avoiding the blockaded Gaza Strip’s travel restrictions and allowing him to participate as a negotiator in peace talks or speak with Hamas’s ally Iran.
The martyrdom of Haniyeh occurs as Israel’s assault in Gaza enters its tenth month, with no signs of an end to a conflict that has shook the Middle East and threatened to escalate into a larger regional battle.
Despite fury directed at Netanyahu’s administration by relatives of Israeli hostages still detained in Gaza and rising international pressure for a truce, talks facilitated by Egypt and Qatar appear to have stalled. At the same time, the possibility of a clash between Israel and Hezbollah has increased following Saturday’s bombing in the Golan Heights, which killed 12 children in a Druze village, and the subsequent assassination of top Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr.
The conflict began on October 7 when Hamas-led fighters burst past security barriers encircling Gaza and launched an onslaught on Israeli settlements nearby, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping over 250 captives. In response, Israel has conducted a relentless ground and air onslaught in the densely populated coastal enclave, killing over 39,000 people and leaving more than 2 million in dire need of humanitarian assistance.