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.)

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”.

Palestinians attend a protest after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian factions called for unity and a general strike on July 31 to protest the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Tehran.

“The national and Islamic factions in Palestine announce a comprehensive strike and anger marches to (protest) the assassination of the great national leader Ismail Haniyeh, which came in the framework of Zionist state terrorism and its war of extermination,” the Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank said in a joint statement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that he “condemns the assassination of leader Haniyeh and calls on our people and their forces to unite and stand firm”.

In an unusual display of solidarity with his main political rival, Mr. Abbas called for a day of mourning for the man he had named Prime Minister in 2006 and dismissed in 2007. Flags are to be flown at half-mast.

The Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah condemned “the treacherous assassination” of Haniyeh, and called on Palestinians to remain united “in the face of the (Israeli) occupation”.

Employees of government ministries in Ramallah left their offices in response to the strike call.

Shops closed and employees left work in several cities in the occupied West Bank, while cultural institutions announced they would remain closed.

Singapore:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Washington is Israel’s key military backer and has been pushing for a Gaza ceasefire, which Blinken said remains “manifestly in the interests” of the Israeli hostages and Gazans who have been “caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making”.

As the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Haniyeh was overseeing the negotiations for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release hostages held in the territory in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire is also key to preventing the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

Qatar — a vital mediator in truce talks which also hosts Hamas’s political leadership that included Haniyeh — has questioned the future of negotiations in the wake of the assassination.

Hamas vowed the “cowardly” killing of their veteran leader “will not go unanswered”.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

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 39,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and operative deaths.

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

Istanbul:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel’s war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said. 

Erdogan has failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the region, with the Hamas-run Palestinian territory bracing for a new Israeli offensive and a reported Israeli attack on Iran.

Erdogan said Palestinian unity was “vital” following the talks at the Dolmabahce palace on the banks of the Bosphorus strait, which Turkish media reports said lasted more than two and a half hours. 

“The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” Erdogan said according to a Turkish presidency statement. 

Hamas — designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and Israel — is a rival of the Fatah faction that rules the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. 

As fears of a wider regional war grow, Erdogan said recent events between Iran and Israel should not allow Israel to “gain ground and that it is important to act in a way that keeps attention on Gaza”. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the meeting, writing on X: “Muslim Brotherhood alliance: rape, murder, desecration of corpses and the burning of babies. Erdogan, shame on you!” 

Hamas was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987.

Close ties with Haniyeh

With Qatar saying it will reassess its role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel, Erdogan sent Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Doha on Wednesday in a new sign that he wants a role. 

“Even if only I, Tayyip Erdogan, remain, I will continue as long as God gives me my life, to defend the Palestinian struggle and to be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” the president said Wednesday when he announced Haniyeh’s visit. 

Hamas has had an office in Turkey since 2011 when Turkey helped secure the agreement for the group to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. 

Erdogan has maintained links with Haniyeh, who has been a frequent visitor.

Fidan was a past head of Turkish intelligence and the country provided information and passports to Hamas officials, including Haniyeh, according to Sinan Ciddi, a Turkey specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. 

This has never been confirmed by Turkish authorities, however.

Erdogan slams Israel

If Qatar withdraws from mediation efforts, Turkey could seek to increase its mediation profile based on its Hamas links.

Fidan on Saturday held talks with visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, with both men emphasising the need to deliver more humanitarian aid to devastated Gaza where the threat of famine looms.

Turkey is one of Gaza’s main humanitarian aid partners, sending 45,000 tonnes of supplies and medicine in the region.

Israel has said it is preparing an offensive against the Gazan city of Rafah and the reported Israeli attack on the Iranian province of Isfahan, following Iran’s direct attack on Israel, has only clouded hopes of a peace breakthrough.

But Erdogan can only expect a “very limited” role because of his outspoken condemnation of Israel and its actions in Gaza, according to Ciddi.

Last year, the Turkish leader likened the tactics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and called Israel a “terrorist state” because of its offensive against Hamas after the group’s October 7 attacks on Israel. 

Ciddi said Erdogan would not be welcome in Israel and at most might be able to pass messages between Palestinian and Israel negotiators.

The unprecedented Hamas attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Hamas also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 34,049 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

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