Funeral for Ismail Haniyeh held in Qatar, Israel warns of retaliation

DUBAI:

The funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was held in Qatar on Friday after he was assassinated two days ago in Iran’s capital Tehran – one in a series of assassinations of senior figures in the Palestinian militant group as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza rages .

Among the mourners at the ceremony at a large mosque just north of the capital Doha was Khaled Meshaal, who is seen as the new leader of Hamas. Other senior Hamas officials and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani also attended.

He will be buried in a cemetery in the city of Lusail, north of Doha.

Haniyeh’s coffin, draped in the Palestinian flag, was carried into the mosque alongside hundreds of people along with the coffin of his bodyguard, who was killed in the same attack in Tehran on Wednesday.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zohri told Reuters as he attended the funeral: “Our message to the occupation (Israel) today is that you are sinking deep in the mire and your end is closer than ever. Haniya’s blood will change all equations”.

Haniyeh was killed by a rocket that directly hit him at a state-run guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Haya told a news conference, citing witnesses who were with him.

Iran and Hamas have both accused Israel of carrying out the assassination and have vowed to retaliate against their enemy. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the death or denied it.

The strike was one of several that killed senior members of Hamas or the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, fueling concern that the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militants is turning into a regional conflict stretching from the Red Sea to the Lebanon-Israel border and beyond. . .

In the United States, US President Joe Biden said Haniyeh’s killing did not help international efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza war, now in its 10th month.

“It doesn’t help,” Biden told reporters Thursday when asked if the action damaged any chance of a truce.

Qatar is leading the peace effort along with Egypt and the United States, Israel’s main ally.

The widow mourns

Haniyeh was the face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as the war raged back in Gaza and had taken part in indirect ceasefire talks.

He was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more hard-line members of the Iranian-backed group in Gaza, although some Israeli commentators said he was seen by some on the Israeli side as an obstacle to a deal.

Appointed to the top Hamas post in 2017, he shuttled between Turkey and Doha, avoiding the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip.

In May, the International Criminal Court’s prosecution sought arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have rejected the allegations.

Iran held its own funeral for Haniyeh on Thursday, attended by his widow Amal.

“Say hello to all the martyrs of Gaza, say hello to the leaders, to all the martyrs of Gaza, to all Muslims,” ​​Amal Haniyeh said as she mourned by his coffin.

Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq called on people to pray for his soul in all mosques around the world.

“Let today, Friday, be a day of overwhelming outrage that denounces the crime of murder and rejects the genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement.

Although Israel has not said it carried out the assassination, it said an airstrike it launched last month killed the elusive Hamas military leader Mohammed Dayef in Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied Daif’s death.

Hezbollah confirmed on Wednesday that its top military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut.

Hezbollah on Thursday promised a “definite” response to Shukr’s killing, saying red lines had been crossed and the decades-long rivalry between the enemies had entered a new phase.

“We are looking for a real response, not a performative response, and for real opportunities. A considered response,” Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the slain commander’s funeral.