Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was buried in Qatar on Friday after his killing in Tehran, an attack blamed on Israel that has heightened regional tensions as the Gaza war dragged on.

Haniyeh was laid to rest in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, following funeral prayers at the Gulf emirate’s largest mosque attended by thousands of people.

Haniyeh, the Palestinian armed group’s political chief, played a key role in mediated talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The burial was restricted to a small number of people including one of Haniyeh’s daughters, Sara, who shared a video on social media showing her pouring holy water over a pebble-topped grave before lowering her head to kiss it.

“In this moment, I buried my soul under the dirt and I departed. I departed with all the pain of the world in my ribs,” she captioned the video uploaded on X.

Mourners earlier on Friday lined up inside Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque, where Haniyeh’s casket, draped in a Palestinian flag, was briefly carried in to the shouts of angry mourners.

Others prayed on mats outside in temperatures that reached 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit).

“He was a symbol, a resistance leader… people are angry,” said Taher Adel, 25, a Jordanian student residing in the Qatari capital.

Haniyeh’s predecessor Khaled Meshaal spoke at the ceremony, saying he had “served his cause, his people… and never abandoned them”.

Turkey and Pakistan announced a day of mourning on Friday to honour Haniyeh, while Hamas called for a “day of furious rage”.

Many mourners in Doha wore scarves that combined the Palestinian flag with a checkered keffiyeh pattern and the message in English: “Free Palestine”.

High-profile killings

Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn “hit” on their accommodation in Tehran Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian a day earlier.

Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack, has not directly commented on it.

The killing of Qatar-based Haniyeh is among several incidents since April that have sent regional tensions soaring during the Gaza war, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Iranian officials met with representatives of these groups on Wednesday to discuss the next steps, either “a simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party”, a source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement told AFP.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met with his visiting British counterpart John Healey on Friday and stressed “the importance of establishing a coalition” to support “Israel’s defence against Iran and its proxies”, Gallant’s office said.

Military chief Herzi Halevi told troops Israel would respond “very strongly” to any attacks, an army statement said.

France urged its nationals visiting Iran to leave “due to the increased risk of a military escalation”.

During the Gaza war, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire, and did so again on Friday.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency reported several people killed in the territory’s north, and Israel’s military said it had killed around 30 operatives near Rafah, in the south.

Haniyeh’s assassination came hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Haniyeh’s deputy, Saleh al-Aruri, was killed in Beirut early this year.

On Thursday Israel confirmed the death of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in a July strike in Gaza.

Deal ‘off the table’

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

The attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas operatives also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

The fighting has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. On Friday, the UN Satellite Centre said nearly two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza, or 151,265 structures, have been damaged or destroyed during the war.

On Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh in Tehran, having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.

The New York Times, citing Middle Eastern officials, has reported that Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device planted weeks ago at a Tehran guesthouse.

Asked about the report, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists “there was no other Israeli aerial attack… in all the Middle East” on the night of Shukr’s killing in Lebanon.

Israel said Shukr’s assassination — for which Hezbollah said retaliation was “inevitable” — was a response to rocket fire which killed 12 youths last week in the annexed Golan Heights.

Iranian news agency Fars said the US report was a “lie”, insisting that the Hamas leader was killed by a “projectile”.

Analyst Hugh Lovatt said Haniyeh’s killing “will mean that a ceasefire deal with Israel is now totally off of the table”.

The White House said US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and affirmed his commitment to defend Israel’s security “against all threats from Iran”.

“We have the basis for a ceasefire (in Gaza)… They should move on it now,” Biden told reporters after the call.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The news could not have been more dramatic- just hours after Palestinian leader and Hamas Political chief Ismail Haniyeh had met with the new Iranian President, and attended President Pezeshkian’s inauguration, the Iranian guard IRGC announced he had been killed- while there is still some confusion over how he died- with Iran blaming Israel for a missile strike, while US and Israeli news reports pointed to a delayed bomb smuggled in months ago- the impact of his assassination will be felt deeply across the region

1. Iran’s response came swiftly- the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei led funeral prayers in Tehran, and the government said revenge for the violation of sovereignty would come soon

2. On the same day Haniyeh was killed Israel announced it had assassinated Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukur in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, and that it had killed another Hamas leader Mohammad Deif in a Gaza bombing a month ago

3. The attack on Hezbollah followed the killings of 12 children in Majdal Shams on the Golan heights in a rocket attack that Israel blamed Hezbollah for. The attack was on a community of Druze or Arab Israelis. While facing their anger- and posters he was a war criminal

4. A day later in Tehran, newly elected President Pezeshkian took oath- many countries sent envoys to the event- India sent Road and Transport minister Nitin Gadkari- and as you can see – leaders of Hamas Haniyeh as well as Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah were in the same picture

 The killing followed other global developments

5. PM Benjamin Netanyahu went to the US to garner support from the govt, also presidential candidates and the Congress. While President Biden and President Trump were effusive, VP Harris was more measured

Remember 40,000 have now been killed in Israeli bombing of Gaza, including about 15,000 children. 115 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas custody

6. Meanwhile China played peacemaker between the two biggest Palestinian groups Fatah- that formed the government the West Bank, and Hamas, that has controlled Gaza for the past 2 decades- they agreed to form a Unity government- this was criticised by Israel and could have been a trigger for the Haniyeh killing

7. And earlier in the month, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion calling Israel’s continued occupation of Gaza and the West Bank- unlawful and a violation of International law

So while Israel has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing- there are several reasons why most believe it is an Israeli operation 

1. Vowed reprisals for October 7- and finishing off Hamas, killing its leaders has been the goal
Haniyeh was killed in Iran, not in Qatar where he lives or in Turkey where he visited frequently- as these would cause a bigger problem for Israel- both Qatar and Turkey host US bases

2. Iran nuclear scientists have been killed in similar attacks in Tehran- and the MO appears to be Israeli

3. PM Netanyahu has consistently opposed a ceasefire despite US pressure to accept one, and killing off Hamas’s chief negotiator will slow down the ceasefire process as well as take the pressure off

4. This assassination will put new Iran President Pezeshkian in the spot- as he has advocated engagement with the west, as well as force US leaders to close ranks with Israel if Irans response sparks a war- Much depends on whether it will be an attack of reprisal- targeted killing by stealth, or escalatory strikes, and will Iran attack alone or along with proxies and allies in the region like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Kata’ib Hezbollah?

India has not so far commented on all that has happened- what is the impact of all these events

1. India was put in an awkward position- first by Iranians who included Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in photo where Indian minister by present, and then by Israel if it targeted the Hamas leader in Tehran while he was there- that awkwardness will continue as India engages both

2. India’s newly signed MoU for Chabahar port could be in trouble- both from conflict and from more sanctions

3. India’s agreement with Israel to send workers to fill in for construction and caregiver jobs will also face challenges

4. India has already issued a travel advisory for Lebanon, Air India has cancelled flights to Israel- likely to be more advisories

5. Connectivity and Trade projects like IMEEC and I2U2 will be grounded

WV Take:

India’s road in west asia or middle east will always be complicated by history, close geography as well as the 8 million indians who live and work in the region being impacted. India’s interests in the region including trade, energy and connectivity are also too intricate to submit to binaries- of good and bad, and choosing one side over the other. Those interests are best served by asserting India’s position in favour of rule of law and justice, respect for the multilateral order rather than might and power- and not forsaking old friendships in favour of new ones.

1. Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East by Yonah Jeremy Bob Ilan Evyatar

2. Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman

3. Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters Helena Cobban and Rami Khouri

4. Israel’s Long War with Hezbollah: Military Innovation and Adaptation Under Fire Kindle Edition by Raphael D. Marcus

5. Hamas Contained By Tareq Baconi

6. Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States by Trita Parsi

7. Footnotes in Gaza By Joe Sacco

Production: Gayatri Menon and Shibu Narayan

While Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Iran’s capital Tehran mere hours after the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian has created shockwaves across the world, the response to the killing is expected to be imminent, and, possibly, tectonic.

Haniyeh was, after all, the political chief of a group labelled a terror entity by the US and many others. In fact, some had designated the group so long before they listed Al Qaeda in the same bracket. The likes of Al Qaeda saw a more rapid ascent in using violence globally, culminating with the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, which also launched a two-decade-long ‘war on terror’. The likes of Hamas, on the other hand, confined themselves around the issue of both the sovereignty of Palestine and a fundamental ideological aversion to the state of Israel.

‘Axis of Resistance’ At Iranian President’s Swearing-In Ceremony

The killing of Haniyeh is shocking but not unexpected. In November 2023, a month after Hamas orchestrated the terror attack against Israel – from which the group continues to hold hostages – the Israeli establishment had made it clear that it would go after the leadership of the likes of Hamas in Gaza, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and others. Back then, the Yemen-based Ansrallah (more popularly known as the Houthis) was not as big an actor as it has today become, specifically in the Red Sea theatre. At Pezeshkian’s swearing-in, the leadership of all these groups, known more formally as the ‘Axis of Resistance’, were in attendance.

Watch | What Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh Did Hours Before His Assassination

The fact that Haniyeh was killed in the middle of Tehran at a time when it was teeming with military personnel sends out a strong message of both access to and the compromise of Iranian security and polity infrastructure. This further underscored the fact that a narrative was built to showcase where groups like Hamas gain their strength from (although this has not been an area of question or contention). While Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, Iran blames the Jewish state for the same. However, Israel has, in the meantime, taken responsibility for the killing of top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in a strike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and the elimination of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in Gaza, known to be a key architect of the October 7 terror strike.

What Next?

The big question at this juncture is, what next? In April, Iran retaliated against Israel after the latter targeted what Tehran claimed was part of its diplomatic mission in Damascus, Syria. This event set forth an escalation ladder where Iran could not be seen as being unable or incapable of directly responding militarily and not just via its knitting of proxy groups spread across the region. While Tehran for long has sought to create a level of strategic ambiguity, where attacks by proxy groups that receive material and political support from the country’s all-powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its elite clandestine foreign wing, the Quds Force, gave it a level of deniability, Haniyeh’s assassination may in part be designed to reverse this blueprint and pull Iran out of its own shadows, into a more direct, visible, and public confrontation.

Also Read | Iran’s Leader Orders Attack On Israel After Hamas Chief’s Killing: Report

Even if Iran would for the moment want to hold back, the rhetoric and expectation from its Axis partners may not allow it to do so. If by way of argument, Israel is goading a response from Tehran, a speech given by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday found itself in the same space as Israel, looking for an active response from the Iranian side. “Do those people think they can kill a commander like Ismail Haniyeh and Iran will remain silent?” Nasrallah said as he laid out a requirement for avenging Haniyeh’s death. For long, the Iran-backed Axis has fought for its own ideological and political aims that feed into a larger construct, in way of providing manpower and geography alike. During this, they have also absorbed tremendous loss. This is especially true for the Hamas in Gaza. It may become hard for Iran now to exercise strategic restraint, even though the likes of Hezbollah may well do so themselves in the long term, despite the rhetoric.

Some Forced To Find A Middle Path

For others in the region, specifically in the Arab Gulf, the current trajectory of escalation remains worrying. Many top Arab representatives, including from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, were present at Pezeshkian’s inauguration. The likes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the recent past have increased their engagement with Iran in a bid to course-correct the long-standing narrative of Shia-Sunni confrontations. While sectarian issues remain mostly entrenched, geopolitical and geoeconomic realities have forced those like Saudi Arabia, for example, to find a middle path with the Houthis in Yemen via dialogue, a group with which they technically have been at war since 2015.

For Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and so on, reconstructing this crisis first as one between Israel and Iran, and then, as a longer and larger battle for Palestinian self-determination, may well be crucial to secure their own neutrality.

Region Remains Sensitive

The US, a core security player in the region, has been relatively silent since Haniyeh’s death. US President Joe Biden has said that Haniyeh’s killing will not help the ceasefire and a negotiated deal with Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, himself facing severe political headwinds, seems to have chosen the popular demand to eliminate figureheads such as Haniyeh at a time when, even if a deal was brokered, he would have had to release in exchange hundreds of Hamas members who are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Finally, regional tensions are expected to remain significantly high in the days to come as Iran and its proxies decide upon a response. In April, there were hints that the escalation between Iran and Israel was at some level mitigated and managed, perhaps via indirect communication or some kind of mediation. This time, the region may well not be so lucky unless a regional and global effort to calm the situation down is mobilised immediately.

[Kabir Taneja is a Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation. He is the author of ‘The ISIS Peril: The World’s Most Feared Terror Group and its Shadow on South Asia’ (Penguin Viking, 2019)]

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

President Joe Biden speaks with reporters after greeting reporter Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., following their release as part of a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday the killing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh was not helpful for reaching a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.

There has been an increased risk of an escalation into a broader Middle East war after the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran drew threats of retaliation against Israel.

Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, who had participated in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.

Also read: What does Haniyeh’s death mean for Israel-Iran rivalry?

Anxious residents in Israeli-besieged Gaza feared that Haniyeh’s killing on Wednesday would prolong the war.

Iran said the killing took place hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for its new president.

“It doesn’t help,” Mr. Biden told reporters late on Thursday, when asked if Haniyeh’s assassination ruined the chances for a ceasefire agreement.

Mr. Biden also said he had a direct conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Thursday.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has issued no claim of responsibility but he has said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies of late, including Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.

Israel’s tensions with Iran and Hezbollah have fanned fears of a widened conflict in a region already on edge amid Israel’s assault on Gaza which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide accusations that Israel denies.

The United States has said it was not involved in the killing of Haniyeh. 

Iranians follow a truck, center, carrying the coffins of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard who were killed in an assassination blamed on Israel on Wednesday
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran held a funeral ceremony on August 1 with calls for revenge after the killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike blamed on Israel.

Thousands of mourners paid respects to Haniyeh as the Israeli military confirmed that an air strike in Gaza last month killed the Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh ahead of his burial in Qatar, having earlier threatened a “harsh punishment” for his killing.

In Tehran’s city centre, crowds, including women shrouded in black, carried posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags in a procession and ceremony that began at Tehran University.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced the day before that Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn strike on Wednesday on their accommodation in Tehran.

It came just hours after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, in a retaliatory strike in the south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, raising fears of a wider regional conflict as the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza continues. Shukr is to be buried on Thursday.

‘Duty to respond’

Senior Iranian officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, General Hossein Salami, attended the ceremony for Haniyeh, state TV showed. Qatar-based Haniyeh had been visiting Tehran for Mr. Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s foreign relations chief, vowed during the funeral ceremony that Haniyeh’s message will live on and “we will pursue Israel until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine”.

Mr. Pezeshkian later told Mr. Hayya that Iran “will continue to support with firmer determination on the Axis of Resistance”, Iran-aligned regional groups that include Hamas, the official IRNA news agency said.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, “It is our duty to respond at the right time and in the right place.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the strikes in Tehran and Beirut represented a “dangerous escalation”.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh
| Photo Credit: AP

India maintained a studied silence a day after the political head of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in an early morning incident on Wednesday. Sources here indicated that the issue is sensitive because of India’s close relations with both Iran and Israel and also because Iranian authorities are yet to reveal details of the incident that led to the death of Mr. Haniyeh.

Ismael Haniyeh’s death came hours after he participated in the swearing-in ceremony of the new President of Iran Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian alongside other international dignitaries including Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. Officials here declined to comment if the presence of the Hamas leader and figures from Hezbollah, the Houthis and Islamic Jihad in the gathering posed a security concern for the Indian side indicating that the guests were invited by the Government of Iran and therefore were not a concern for the Indian authorities. 

Minister Gadkari returned on Wednesday after spending two days in Tehran. At the conclusion of the event, President Pezeshkian posed with the guests in a group photograph that included Mr. Gadkari as well as Haniyeh and the head of Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem and Yemen’s Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam.

Tight rope walk

Mr. Haniyeh was reportedly staying in the Sa’adabad complex, an affluent neighbourhood in the northern part of the Iranian capital and Mr. Gadkari was in a high-end hotel. The reported loud blast that rocked the northern part of the city was far from where the Indian delegation was located. Indian community sources in Tehran informed The Hindu that the overall situation in Tehran remains tense as Iran has announced three days of national mourning and the authorities have restricted access to mobile internet which has made even internal communication difficult. Iran has a small Sikh community in Tehran and Bandar Abbas and around 4,000 Indians in Qom who are students in the Islamic seminaries. One Indian source said, that though the death of Mr. Haniyeh has highlighted the international security challenges for Iran, the new government has pressing economic issues that it may prioritise over anything else at the moment.

The attack in Tehran has once again shown the tight rope walk that India faces in the West Asian region in the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza. India was one of the first countries to condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel as ‘terror attack’ but it has not officially designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Israel’s outgoing ambassador to India Naor Gilon had urged India to designate Hamas as a terror outfit. However, India chose to reiterate its support for a two-state formula to resolve the current conflict.

Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran July 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

On July 20, Israel carried out a massive air strike on Hodeidah, the Red Sea port city in Yemen, that is controlled by the Houthi militia, in response to a drone attack by the Houthis that had hit Tel Aviv. The attack reportedly caused losses worth millions, besides killing at least three and wounding over 80 others. On July 30, Israel carried out an air strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, targeting Fuad Shukr aka al-Hajj Mohsen, a top commander of Hezbollah, three days after a rocket attack killed 12 young people at a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel had blamed Hezbollah for the attack and vowed retaliation. On the same day, Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, was killed at his residence in Tehran. Haniyeh, who was living in exile in Qatar, travelled to Iran to attend the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian, the Islamic Republic’s new President. In Majlis, Iran’s parliament, Haniyeh hugged Mr. Pezeshkian, while lawmakers chanted “Death to Israel”. Before dawn, Haniyeh was killed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite paramilitary force of Iran, and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing of Haniye.

The common factor of all three groups — Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Palestine’s Hamas — is that all of them are backed by Iran, Israel’s chief rival in West Asia. By targeting all three in a matter of days, Israel has dealt a blow to Iran’s influence and taken the region to the brink of an all-out war. Of these three strikes, the killing of Haniyeh, the most high-profile leader of Hamas outside Gaza, would be particularly seen as a victory by the Israelis. After the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas in Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed, the Israelis vowed that they would target all Hamas leaders who they hold responsible for the carnage. Haniyeh was safe while he was in Qatar, an American ally that was trying to mediate a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. But when he went to Iran, his biggest backer, the Israelis went after him.

Death by Israel 

Haniyeh was arguably the most powerful leader of Hamas after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. The wheelchair-bound, half-blind Yassin, the spiritual and organisational founder of Hamas, was killed by an Israeli missile in March 2004. Rantisi, who was appointed his successor, was also killed by the Israelis within a month. Haniyeh, who was the head of the office of Sheikh Yassin, emerged to occupy the vacuum left by the departure of two of the movement’s tallest leaders. He played a key role in mainstreaming Hamas, which was till then seen as a radical resistance militia, among the Palestinians. When Israel was forced to withdraw from Gaza in 2005, Hamas took credit for it. In 2006, Haniyeh led the group to victory in parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza, ending the monopoly of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). As the leader of the Hamas parliamentary party, Haniyeh was invited to form the government in the Palestinian Authorities.

But he faced two challenges. One, the PA’s international backers, mainly in the West, were not ready to accept a government run by Hamas, which was designated as a terrorist group by Israel and some Western countries. Two, Mr. Abbas and Fatah were unhappy with a Hamas Prime Minister. The PA faced a major economic crisis as financial assistance from the West dried up. Tensions broke out between Fatah and Hamas. Mr. Abbas then dissolved the elected Hamas government, a move welcomed by Israel and the West; but rejected by Hamas and Haniyeh. This led to a civil war between the two Palestinian factions, with Fatah expelling Hamas from the West Bank and Hamas capturing Gaza and expelling Fatah from the enclave.

Haniyeh would lead the Hamas government in Gaza before stepping aside in 2017 and elevating Yahya Sinwar, who, according to the Israelis, was the mastermind of the October 7 attack. In 2017, Haniyeh relocated to Doha, while Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the military chief of Hamas, ran Gaza from within the enclave. Ever since, Haniyeh had been the face of Hamas’s regional and international presence. He played a critical role in Hamas’s consensus-driven decision-making model. By killing him, Israel has dealt a blow to both the militant group and the Gaza ceasefire talks. Will Hamas now accept a hostage deal with Israel which killed its top leader?

And by killing Haniyeh in Iran, where he was a guest, Israel has both embarrassed Iran and exposed its intelligence and security vulnerabilities.

Iran’s view  

In April, when Israel bombed the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, Tehran launched a massive missile and drone attack towards Israel. A U.S.-led coalition shot down most of Iran’s over 300 projectiles on April 14. Israel’s response to Iran’s attack was meek. Iran was sending a clear message to the Israelis — Israeli attacks on Iranian officers would not go unpunished. Ever since, Israel has not targeted Iranian officers or its missions. But Israel is slowly changing the rules again. By carrying out back-to-back attacks against three Iran-aligned militias, Israel is ramping up pressure on the Islamic Republic. And the killing of Haniyeh showed Israel’s capabilities to strike even inside Iran’s capital. Iran retaliated in April when its embassy complex in Syria was attacked, setting new rules of engagement. Can Tehran afford not to retaliate this time, after Israel killed an ally in Iranian soil?  Highly unlikely. 

The fact that the IRGC blamed Israel for the attack itself is indicative that Iran would retaliate. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also vowed revenge. Tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon are already high with Hezbollah’s rocket attacks. What is to be seen is what Iran and Hezbollah are going to do and what Israel would do in response. West Asia is dangerously close to an all-out war.

Doha:

Hamas’ response to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal is consistent with the principles put forward in US President Joe Biden’s plan, the group’s Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech on the occasion of the Islamic Eid al-Adha on Sunday.

“Hamas and the (Palestinian) groups are ready for a comprehensive deal which entails a ceasefire, withdrawal from the strip, the reconstruction of what was destroyed and a comprehensive swap deal,” Haniyeh said, referring to the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

On May 31, Biden laid out what he called a “three-phase” Israeli proposal that would include negotiations for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as well as phased exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Egypt and Qatar – which along with the United States have been mediating between Hamas and Israel – said on June 11 that they had received a response from the Palestinian groups to the US plan, without giving further details.

While Israel said Hamas rejected key elements of the US plan, a senior Hamas leader told Reuters that the changes the group requested were “not significant”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iran May 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Leaders of the Iran-led, so-called “axis of resistance”, including Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, discussed the war in Gaza during a meeting in Tehran on the sidelines of president Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral, state media reported on May 23.

The “axis of resistance” brings together Iran’s regional allies in the fight against Israel, including the Palestinian movement Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Huthis and Iraqi Shiite armed groups.

The leaders of these movements met Wednesday after attending ceremonies organised in Tehran to pay tribute to Raisi, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran.

The meeting was attended by Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s Qatar-based political bureau, as well as Hezbollah deputy Naim Qassem and Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam.

Haniyeh had also previously had an audience with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian officials meanwhile included General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as General Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the guards.

They discussed “the latest political, social and military situation in Gaza and the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and the role of the resistance front,” state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The meeting reportedly stressed “the continuation of jihad and struggle until the complete victory of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza with the participation of all resistance groups and fronts in the region”, IRIB said.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar channel also reported the meeting, broadcasting photos.

Iran’s Fars news agency said representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Iraqi groups were also present at the meeting.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who also died in the helicopter accident, had increased his trips to the region, particularly to Lebanon and Syria.

Iran is a key backer of Hamas, but has repeatedly denied involvement in the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Dubai:

The leader of Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday that Israeli hostages held in the besieged Gaza Strip were subject to the same “death and destruction” that Palestinians have faced.

Hamas has told mediators that it was necessary for the “massacre” to stop and called on people to continue protesting, particularly in the West, to mount pressure on decision makers, Ismail Haniyeh said in a recorded video message.
 

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