Tensions rise in Middle East, after killing of Hamas leader

Tension is rising in the Middle East after Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed while in a building intended for war veterans located in Tehran, the capital of Iran. According to the Iranian authorities, the killing of the Hamas leader by means of a rocket took place around 2 o'clock in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. In the same building where Haniyeh was, on an upper floor was also the secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhaleh, who escaped unharmed from the attack on the Hamas leader, announced the Israeli channel Channel 12, quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

Before this attack, Israel had announced that it had succeeded in eliminating, in Beirut, Lebanon, one of the leaders of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr alias "Sayyid Muhsan", whom the authorities in Tel-Aviv accused of the rocket attack, last Saturday, of the city of Majdal Shams, an attack in which 12 children, most of them belonging to the local Druze community, lost their lives on a football field. According to the Israeli authorities, Fuad Shukr is also responsible for the killing of 241 American marines in Lebanon in 1983. Moreover, for this fact, Shukr was labeled as an "international terrorist" in 2019 by the US State Department and established a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and arrest.

Regarding the killing of Haniyeh, the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post reports that the Government Press Office in Tel-Aviv published a post in English on the official Facebook account yesterday morning, announcing the assassination of the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh. The post had the word "removed" written across Haniyeh's face in big, black letters. After a few minutes, the image was removed from the official Facebook page of the Israeli Executive, but the global media had already picked up the information and presented it as an official confirmation that Israel was responsible for the attack in the capital of Iran.

Following this incident, international reactions and accusations against Israel increased in intensity. The Kremlin denounced the killing of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and said that this attack risks further destabilizing the situation in the Middle East.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said: "We strongly condemn this attack (...) We believe that such acts are directed against attempts to restore peace in the region and can considerably destabilize an already tense situation."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the "treacherous assassination" of his "brother", Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

"May God have mercy on my brother Ismaïl Haniyeh, who fell as a martyr in this heinous attack," wrote Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the X social network, denouncing "Zionist barbarity."

• Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah threaten to escalate the conflict with Israel

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country would punish Israel severely for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

"Through this act, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime has prepared the ground for a severe punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to avenge (Haniyeh's) blood that was spilled on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Khamenei said , according to the official IRNA news agency.

For his part, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said his country "will defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor and pride and make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act."

In fact, Iran decreed three days of national mourning in memory of Ismail Haniyeh, who will benefit from two funeral services: one in Tehran and another tomorrow, in Doha, in Qatar, where he will actually be buried in the presence of representatives of the factions Palestinian, as well as Arab and Muslim leaders, according to a press release issued by the Hamas group, taken by Le Figaro.

Egypt condemns attacks on Hezbollah military leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, calling them a "dangerous escalation" that could inflame the region.

Egypt's foreign ministry said the new attacks undermine "the persistent efforts made by Egypt and its partners to stop the war in the Gaza Strip" and "indicate the absence of Israeli political will to calm the situation". That is why the authorities in Cairo ask the United Nations Security Council "to prevent the security situation in the region from getting out of control".

Authorities in Beijing also condemned Haniyeh's murder, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said his country was concerned about the fallout from the incident.

The Foreign Minister of Pakistan categorized the assassination of Haniyeh as an irresponsible act on the part of Israel. Officials in Islamabad said Pakistan condemned "terrorism in all its forms" and warned of "rising Israeli adventurism" and that "Israel's latest action constitutes a dangerous escalation in an unstable region."

"Repeated political assassinations and attacks on civilians in Gaza as negotiations continue make us wonder how mediation can succeed when one side assassinates the other side's negotiator. Peace needs serious partners and a global stand against contempt for human life," said Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar, the country that is mediating negotiations between Hamas and Israel regarding the hostages taken by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Jordan condemned, through a press release, the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh by Israel in Tehran, stating that this act represents a "violation of international law and international humanitarian law, a crime that will lead to the escalation of tension and increasing chaos in the region".

The Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, said "this assassination will take the war to a new level and have enormous consequences for the entire region," according to a press release carried by Al Jazeera and Le Figaro.

Following these statements from the region, Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, said yesterday that although his country does not want to enter a new war, it will be prepared to face any air or ground attack.

The "logic of reprisals" in the Middle East "is not the right way", said representatives of the German Government. Sebastian Fischer, a spokesman for Germany's foreign ministry, said: "It is essential to avoid escalation and regional contagion of the conflict. Everyone needs to keep their wits about them and react calmly."

It is certain that, after the attack organized by Israel in Lebanon, the US Secretary of State for Defense, Lloyd Austin, stated, quoted by the Israeli and Arab media, that the US would support Israel in the event of a conflict with Hezbollah.

• Who was Ismail Haniyeh?

Ismail Haniyeh, 62 at the time of his death, was born in a refugee camp near Gaza City and joined Hamas in the late 1980s. According to CNN, as Hamas grew in power, Haniyeh rose through the ranks - being named part of a secret "collective leadership" in 2004, then being named prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2006. By 2017, he had become the head of the group and was named a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" by the United States shortly time after that.

Over the years, he has participated in peace talks with former US President Jimmy Carter and met with other world leaders, including Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Chinese diplomat Wang Kejian earlier this year. year.

Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran as he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's new president, Massoud Pezeshkian, on Tuesday.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and lived in exile in Qatar. In April 2024, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed three of Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandsons. In an interview with the Al Jazeera satellite channel at the time, Haniyeh said the killings would not pressure Hamas to soften its positions in ongoing cease-fire negotiations with Israel.

In June, 10 members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. At the time, the Hamas leader said that more than 60 members of his family had been killed since October 7, 2023.

Following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, one of Ismail Haniyeh's sons - Abdul Salam Haniyeh - said that killing his father would not end Palestinian resistance against Israel.

He told AlJazeera: "My father survived four assassination attempts during his patriotic journey, and today Allah has granted him the martyrdom he always wanted. He wanted to establish national unity and strove for the unification of all Palestinian factions. This assassination will not deter the resistance, which will fight until freedom is obtained."