Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran early on Wednesday morning, an attack that drew threats of revenge on Israel and fuelled further concern 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 a swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s new president.
Although the strike on Haniyeh was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government made no claim of responsibility and said it would make no comment on the killing.
Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him “directly” in a state guesthouse where he was staying, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told a news conference in Tehran, quoting witnesses who were with Haniyeh.
Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been taking part in internationally brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu made no mention of Haniyeh’s killing in a televised statement on Wednesday evening but said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies of late, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.
“We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a heavy price for any aggression against us from any arena,” he said.
The latest events appear to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in the nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas.
Hamas’ armed wing said in a statement Haniyeh’s killing would “take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions”. Vowing to retaliate, Iran declared three days of national mourning and said the U.S. bore responsibility because of its support for Israel.
In Turkey, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through the streets of central Istanbul late on Wednesday to protest Haniyeh’s killing.
Protesters in Istanbul’s Fatih district held posters with Haniyeh’s photo, chanted “murderer Israel, get out of Palestine” and waved Turkish and Palestinian flags.
Washington expressed concern about the potential for escalation. But White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. did not see that as imminent or inevitable and was working to prevent it from happening.
The risks “are certainly up right now. They don’t make the task of de-escalation, deterrence and dissuasion – which is the goal – any less complicated,” he told reporters.
The U.S. advised citizens not to travel to Lebanon, and two U.S. airlines, United and Delta, paused flights to Tel Aviv.
