Ali Khamenei has said avenging assassination of Ismail Haniyeh is ‘Tehran’s duty’; Hezbollah leader expected to speak at Lebanon funeral of senior commander Fuad Shukur
Full report: Fears of escalation mount after Israeli killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders
Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral has got underway with Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya addressing crowds of mourners in Tehran.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was to lead prayers over Haniyeh’s body at Tehran University in the city centre.
Avenging Haniyeh’s assassination was “Tehran’s duty” because it occurred in the Iranian capital and Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear guest in our home”, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. The New York Times reported that Khamenei had issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, citing three Iranian officials briefed on the order. It was not possible to verify the report. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said the country would “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honour, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act”.
Hamas’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said Hamas and Iran do not want a regional war, but that Haniyeh’s assassination was a crime that should be punished. In comments at a press conference in Tehran, he also said whoever replaced Haniyeh would “follow the same vision” regarding negotiations to end the war – and continue the same policy of resistance against Israel.
Al-Hayya said that Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him “directly” while he was staying at a guesthouse in Tehran, where he was attending Pezeshkian’s inauguration. Iranian authorities have said they are carrying out an investigation into the “incident”.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Haniyeh’s death was a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, according to al-Aqsa TV. Another Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has told Reuters that the killing was a grave escalation that will not achieve its goals.
Although Hamas blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing and members of the Israeli government celebrated it, the country made no official comment on his death. “We are not commenting on that particular incident,” spokesperson David Mencer told a briefing with journalists on Wednesday.
Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will “make anyone who is against us pay a very heavy price.” In a televised statement on Wednesday evening, the Israeli prime minister did not mention Haniyeh’s killing, but said his country was “prepared for any scenario” and stood “determined against any threat”.
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