Iranians turned out to mourn Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh yesterday, a day after he was assassinated in Iran’s capital in an attack that has heightened fears of a direct conflict between Tehran and Israel.
Iranian state TV broadcast live images of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading prayers at Haniyeh’s funeral at Tehran University, where thousands of mourners dressed in black chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
His body would be flown to Qatar, where Haniyeh was usually based, for burial today.
Photo: West Asia News Agency via Reuters
“Rest in peace, Abu al-Abed Ismail Haniyeh. Our nation, Iran, the Axis of Resistance, your people, your fighters ... are united in the choice of resistance to end the Zionist occupation,” Hamas deputy chief in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised speech.
The Axis of Resistance is an alliance built over four decades of Iranian support to resist Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.
Iran and the Palestinian militant group have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran on Wednesday.
However, Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility for the attack that drew threats of revenge on Israel and fueled further concern that the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza was turning into an all-out war in the Middle East.
Hamas’ armed wing in a statement said that Haniyeh’s killing would “take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions.”
Vowing to retaliate, Iran declared three days of national mourning on Wednesday and said the US bore responsibility because of its support for Israel.
The Axis includes Hamas, the Palestinian group that ignited the war in Gaza by attacking Israel on Oct. 7 last year, the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, the Houthi movement in Yemen, and various Shiite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said that the US was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Haniyeh.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.
The Israeli military yesterday said that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza last month.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Meanwhile, two al-Jazeera journalists were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Qatar-based channel reported as war rages in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas.
“Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Refee have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip,” the network reported, adding that the strike “targeted a car near the Aidia area, west of Gaza City.”
Al-Jazeera has been the focus of months of criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
In January, Israel said an al-Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an airstrike in Gaza were “terror operatives.”
The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel who was wounded in a separate strike of being a “deputy company commander” with Hamas.
Al-Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting al-Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
Its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December last year that killed the network’s cameraman.
His wife, two of their children and a grandson were killed in the bombardment of central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp in October last year.
His eldest son was the al-Jazeera staff journalist killed in January when a strike targeted a car in Rafah.
Additional reporting by AP
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