The death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has caused outrage among Middle Eastern leaders and prompted the Islamist group to threaten with “consequences” important throughout the region.”
The supreme leader of Iran, where the attack that killed Haniyeh took place, Ali Khamenei, has warned that his country will take revenge, as has the new Iranian president, Masud Pezeshkian, who on July 31 told Israel in a statement that the Islamic republic “will defend its territorial integrity, its dignity, its honor and will make the invading terrorists repent.”
“The brother, the leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the movement, was killed in a Zionist attack on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new president“Iranian,” the Palestinian movement said in a statement.
Read more: Hamas announces that its leader Ismail Haniya was killed in his residence in Tehran
In exile between Turkey and Qatar, Haniyeh, 61, made an official visit to Tehran to attend the Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremonywho was seen as the more moderate face of Hamas. His death leaves the Islamists in the hands of more extremist leaders, Yahya Sinwar, alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks.
Hamas has been waging a war against Israel for more than nine months in the Gaza Strip, a territory it has governed since 2007, triggered by the attack on October 7 by its fighters in the south of the Israeli state. Haniyeh was also the the group’s main mediator in the negotiations for a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza, which after weeks of pushing by mediators now seem destined to stalemate.
So far, no senior Israeli official has officially acknowledged the operation, although some ministers have suggested on social media that Israel is behind the killing of the Palestinian leader.
“The strategy of political assassinations (…) raises questions about How can negotiations be held in which one party kills the other?with which it is negotiating at the same time,” commented on the social network X (Twitter) Mohamed bin Abderrahmán Al Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar, one of the mediating countries.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has convened a security cabinet meeting, but no further information has been released. “We don’t want war, but we are preparing for all possibilities”Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, referring both to Haniyeh’s death and to an attack admitted by Israel in Beirut that killed the commander in chief of Hezbollah’s military wing.
Condemnation and mourning in the Middle East
Messages of condemnation and mourning for Haniyeh’s death have come from places such as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and even former political rivals such as Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules parts of the occupied West Bank.
Türkiye, China, Russia or Qatar They joined in condemning the murder and warned of the risk of the conflict worsening and spreading.
Haniyeh had become the visible face of the Islamists’ diplomacyleading delegations to neighbouring countries and securing the support of key players, such as Iran and Turkey, in the Palestinian group’s armed struggle against Israel.
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The Abbas government in the West Bank strongly condemned the assassination of the leader of the Hamas movement and called it “a cowardly act and a dangerous event”The ANP declared a day of official mourning.
The Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein al-Sheikh, also condemned the death of the Hamas political leader, and called one of the group’s leaders, Khaled Meshal, to give him his condolences. condolences and insist on “the unity and strength of our people”.
On July 23, Hamas and the secular Fatah party, led by Abbas, signed a declaration in Beijing in which they pledged to end the division that has prevailed since 2007 between these two Palestinian factions and to strengthen unity with the other groups.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a ceasefire in Gaza is an “enduring imperative” and assured that Washington was not “aware” of or “implicated” in Haniyeh’s death.
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Blinken said Washington had no knowledge of and was not involved in Haniyeh’s death.
“This is something that We had no idea what we were involved in.“It’s very difficult to speculate” about the impact this assassination could have, Blinken told the television channel. Channel News Asia during his visit to Singapore.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov warned that Haniyeh’s assassination threatens “significantly destabilize” the region.
“We believe that these actions are directed against attempts to restore peace in the region and that they could significantly destabilise an already tense situation,” the spokesman said.
“They have killed the sane man and left the madman”
In Gaza, Haniyeh’s death has left citizens in suspense over the fate of the Strip now that it is in the hands of the organization’s leader in the enclave, the radical Yahya Sinwar: “Israel has killed the sane and left the mad”said a Palestinian woman through tears EFE.
“This is Another excuse to continue killing civilians in Gaza “I have to go to Sinwar” laments this woman while listening to the news on the radio.
Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, is considered the mastermind behind the October 7 attacksin which Palestinian militias in the Strip killed some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped another 251, triggering an Israeli offensive in the territory it already More than 39,400 Gazans have diedaccording to local authorities.
Since 2017, Haniyeh was the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, replacing Khaled Mashal, and In 2019 he moved from the Strip to Qatarfrom where he was in charge of the leadership and representation of the Islamist group, especially in the international arena.
He was previously the prime minister of the Palestinian national unity government created with Fatah after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 legislative elections, which was dissolved a year later, leading to The Islamists’ seizure of power by force in the StripBetween 2012 and 2017 he was the group’s leader within the enclave, a position in which he was replaced by Yahya Sinwar.
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