Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political leader, was killed in Iran’s capital, Tehran, shortly after attending the swearing in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected president.
According to Iran State Media, an airstrike hit a building for war veterans in Tehran where Haniyeh was staying on Tuesday.
Israel has been blamed but is yet to respond to the accusations. It had previously vowed to eliminate Hamas leaders following the group’s October 7 attack but the Israeli military has said it is conducting a situational assessment.
Palestinians in their hundred took to the streets to protest through Ramallah in the occupied West Bank against the killing. They carried dozens of green Hamas flags and chanted,
“The people want Qassam Brigades,” a reference to the group’s military wing, Al Jazeera reported.
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Mustapha Barhouti, a Palestinian politician and former presidential candidate, told the BBC the Israeli government has committed a grave mistake against Palestine and the attack won’t dampen Palestinian resistance.
“I think the Israeli government has just committed one of the gravest mistake in its life, this was a political, criminal act and if they think that this act of assassination will break the Palestinian resistance, they are absolutely wrong,”
“This man could have signed the prisoner exchange deal with the Israelis,” said Saleh al-Shannar, who was displaced from his home in northern Gaza. “Why did they kill him? They killed peace, not Ismail Haniyeh.”
Nour Abu Salam, a displaced woman, said the killing shows Israel doesn’t want to end the war and establish peace in the region.
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“By assassinating Haniyeh, they are destroying everything,” she said.
According to Al Jazeera, an open support in Ramallah for Hamas is rare. Ramallah is the administrative capital of the occupied West Bank and is governed by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority – long at odds with Hamas over the governance of the two Palestinian territory
Countries and groups affiliated with the Hamas have responded to the death of the Hamas leader
Hamas chiefs have said its political chief Haniyeh was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Iran’s president has vowed to make Israel ‘regret cowardly action’, as Supreme Leader Khamenei says avenging Haniyeh’s killing is Tehran’s duty.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Haniyeh’s assassination, calling it a “cowardly act and dangerous development”.
Russia and Turkey also condemned the attack.
“Undoubtedly, the pure blood of this noted mujahid who honorably campaigned against the usurper Zionist regime in liberating the holy Quds and freeing the oppressed Palestinian nation from the clutches of Zionist occupiers will never go in vain,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement issued Wednesday.
In January, Israel killed Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas in Beirut, with a drone strike.
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