Iran vows revenge after airstrikes kill Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on same day as commander killed in Beirut
Palestinians in the West Bank carry a placard of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader assassinated in Tehran on WednesdayPalestinians in the West Bank carry a placard of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader assassinated in Tehran on Wednesdaycommander in Beirut in the space of 12 hours, as the dual Israeli assassinations crushed hopes for an imminent Gaza ceasefire and fuelled fears of a “dangerous escalation” in the region.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, believed the attacks marked a “dangerous escalation”, his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement that urged all parties to work towards de-escalation. “Restraint alone is insufficient at this extremely sensitive time.” “For months, not a week has gone by without people, at home and abroad, telling me to end the war. I didn’t give in to those voices then and I won’t give in to them today,” he said.
The road to de-escalating regional conflicts with Iran and its allies, from Hezbollah at Israel’s northern border to Houthis in Yemen, runs through Gaza.All the groups have said they took up arms in solidarity with Palestinians, after Israel responded to Hamas’s cross-border attacks on 7 October by launching a war there. Without a ceasefire in Gaza, it is unlikely they will put down arms.
Hamas has survived past assassinations of its top leaders, including Haniyeh’s mentor Ahmed Yassin in 2004, and Haniyeh did not command operations in the territory after leaving for exile in 2019. Israel officially declined to comment on Haniyeh’s assassination, but it had vowed to kill all Hamas leaders after the 7 October attacks. Its intelligence services have a history of carrying out covert killings inside Iran, mostly targeting scientists working on the country’s nuclear programme.
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