[ad_1]
Hamas said Wednesday that its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike while attending the inauguration of a new president in Iran, and vowed that it “will not sit idly by.”
Haniyeh’s death came after Israel struck Hezbollah positions south of Beirut on Tuesday, killing a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which Israel said was responsible for weekend rocket attacks on the Golan Heights.
“Brother leader and leader of the movement, Mujahideen Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in a Zionist attack on his Tehran residence after attending the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.
Moussa Abu Marzouq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, vowed: “The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and we will not stand idly by.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also announced Haniyeh’s death, saying that Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “attacked” and Haniyeh himself and a bodyguard were killed.
“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement, in Tehran was attacked and he and a bodyguard were killed in the incident,” the Guards’ Sepah news website said in a statement.
Haniyeh traveled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Israeli army declined to comment.
– Abbas condemns killings
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of Haniyeh as a “cowardly act” and urged Palestinians to unite against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and return all hostages taken in the October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war.
Hamas attacks killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also took 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza, and the military said 39 had died.
Israel’s retaliatory military operations in Gaza have killed at least 39,400 people, according to the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry, which did not provide specific details on civilian and militant deaths.
Regional tensions have been rising since the outbreak of a war between Israel and Hamas in October last year, involving Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
In 2017, Haniyeh was elected Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, succeeding Khaled Mashaal.
In 2006, he became the Palestinian prime minister after Hamas unexpectedly won the parliamentary election that year and was already a well-known figure.
Haniyeh is considered a pragmatist who lives in exile, dividing his time between Turkey and Qatar.
During the war, he visited Iran and Türkiye and met with the presidents of Türkiye and Iran.
Haniyeh is said to have good relations with leaders of various Palestinian factions, including Hamas rivals.
Hamas joined the group in 1987, when it was founded at the start of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993.
Hamas is part of the “resistance axis” of Iranian-backed armed groups fighting its arch-enemy Israel in the Middle East.
Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It welcomed Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement.
[ad_2]
Source link
