A crowd of mourners — many in attendance held Palestinian flags or portraits of the Hamas leader — gathered at Tehran University in the heart of the city.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran early Wednesday morning, an attack that prompted threats of retaliation in Israel and further fueled concerns that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war.
The Palestinian Islamist militant group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh’s death. The Guards said it took place hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Although the hit on Haniyeh was widely speculated to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has not claimed responsibility and said it would not comment on the killing.
Haniya was killed by a rocket that hit him “directly” at a state-run guesthouse where he was staying, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Haya told a news conference in Tehran, citing witnesses who were with Haniya.
Haniya, normally based in Qatar, has been the face of Hamas’s international diplomacy as the war that began with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel rages in Gaza. He participated in indirect talks with international mediation to achieve a truce in the Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu made no mention of Haniyeh’s killing in a televised statement on Wednesday night, but said Israel had dealt crushing blows to Iran’s proxies in recent times, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and would respond strongly to any attack.
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