Iran on Thursday held funeral processions for Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh after he was killed in an assault in Tehran blamed on Israel.
The Islamic Republic’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead prayers for Haniyeh forward of his burial in Doha, having beforehand threatened “extreme punishment” for his killing.
READ ALSO: What does Haniyeh’s loss of life imply for Israel-Iran rivalry?
Within the middle of the capital, mourning crowds carrying Haniyeh posters and Palestinian flags gathered at Tehran College on Thursday morning, in accordance with a AFP correspondent.
Haniyeh’s loss of life was introduced the day before today by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which mentioned he and his bodyguard had been killed in an assault on their lodging within the Iranian capital at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
This got here simply hours after Israel focused and killed high Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a retaliatory strike within the Lebanese capital Beirut, elevating fears of a wider regional struggle.
Israel has refused to touch upon Tehran’s assault.
Our responsibility is to hunt revenge, says Khamenei
Khamenei, who has the ultimate say in Iran’s political affairs, mentioned after Haniyeh’s loss of life that it was “our responsibility to hunt revenge for his blood as he was martyred on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Hamas chief was in Tehran for the inauguration ceremony of newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.
The Iranian president mentioned on Wednesday that “the Zionists (Israel) will quickly see the results of their cowardly and terrorist act.”
Musa Abu Marzuk, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, additionally vowed retaliation, saying: “The assassination of chief Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and won’t go unanswered.”
Nevertheless, the worldwide group known as for a de-escalation and a concentrate on guaranteeing a ceasefire in Gaza.
UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres mentioned the assaults in Tehran and Beirut represented a “harmful escalation”.
All efforts, he mentioned, should “result in a ceasefire” in Gaza and the discharge of hostages taken throughout the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally mentioned on Wednesday {that a} ceasefire in Gaza remained “crucial,” and White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby later added that the dual killings “don’t assist” regional tensions.
Truce negotiations threatened
From the early hours of Wednesday, crowds took to the streets in cities throughout Iran and the Center East to sentence Haniyeh’s killing, with a whole bunch gathering in Tehran’s Palestine Sq. to chant “Demise to Israel, loss of life to America.”
The Islamic Republic has not but launched any details about the precise location of the assault.
Whereas Iran has blamed its arch-enemy for the assault, Israel has refused to touch upon Haniyeh’s loss of life. It did, nonetheless, declare the loss of life of Shukr, whom it blamed for a lethal rocket assault on the weekend within the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
The killings come amid regional tensions already exacerbated by the struggle in Gaza, a battle that has concerned Iranian-backed militant teams in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
One such group, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, “declared three days of mourning” for Haniyeh, with political chief Mahdi al-Mashat expressing “condolences to the Palestinian individuals and Hamas” over his killing, in accordance with the group’s Saba information company.
In the meantime, Saudi Overseas Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan spoke by telephone after the assault along with his interim Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri to debate “the newest developments within the area.”
The U.N. Safety Council additionally known as an emergency assembly on Wednesday at Iran’s request to debate the assault, with Tehran’s envoy Amir Saeid Iravani urging members to take “instant motion to make sure accountability for these violations of worldwide legislation.”
Hamas has been not directly negotiating a truce and a hostage and prisoner change take care of Israel for months, with Egypt, Qatar and the USA facilitating the talks.
Analysts informed AFP that Haniyeh was a moderating affect inside the Islamist group and that even when he had been changed, the dynamics inside Hamas may change.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 assault that sparked the struggle in Gaza.
The assault killed 1,197 individuals, most of them civilians, in accordance with an AFP rely primarily based on official Israeli figures.
The militants additionally captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are nonetheless held in Gaza, together with 39 who the navy says are lifeless.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign in opposition to Hamas has killed at the very least 39,445 individuals in Gaza, in accordance with the Hamas-ruled territory’s well being ministry.
The prime minister of Qatar, a key ceasefire nation, mentioned Haniyeh’s killing had known as into query your complete mediation course of.
“How can mediation succeed when one aspect kills the opposite aspect’s negotiator?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani requested in a publish on social media web site X.