Hamas’ top political leader was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the militant group has blamed Israel for the “shock” assassination that risked escalating into an all-out regional war.
Iran’s supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.
This from apnews.com.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention the killing but he said:
Israel will exact a very heavy price from any aggression against us on any front.
Further:
There are challenging days ahead.
Israel had pledged to kill Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. So, anyone calling this assassination a “shock” has not been reading the headlines.
The strike came just after Haniyeh had attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran—and hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran’s ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The assassination was potentially explosive amid the region’s volatile, intertwined conflicts because of its target, its timing, and the decision to carry it out in Tehran. Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates. The U.S. and other nations scrambled to prevent a wider, deadlier conflict.
In a statement on his official website, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said:
[Revenge was] our duty [and that Israel had] prepared a harsh punishment for itself [by killing] a dear guest in our home.
Bitter regional rivals, Israel and Iran risked plunging into war earlier this year when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April. Iran retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other’s soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle before it spun out of control.
Haniyeh’s killing also could prompt Hamas to pull out of negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in the 10-month-old war in Gaza, which U.S. mediators had said were making progress.
And:
[It] could inflame already rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which international diplomats were trying to contain after a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Israel carried out a rare strike Tuesday evening in the Lebanese capital that it said killed a top Hezbollah commander allegedly behind the rocket strike. Hezbollah, which denied any role in the Golan strike, confirmed the death of Fouad Shukur on Wednesday, saying he was in the building that was hit. The strike also killed three women and two children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Haniyeh’s death. A key question was whether Israel told the U.S., its top ally, ahead of time.
Asked about Haniyeh’s killing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the strike on the Hezbollah commander in Beirut:
This is something we were not aware of or involved in.
Speaking to Channel News Asia, Blinken said he would not speculate about the impact on cease-fire efforts.
But I can tell you that the imperative of getting a cease-fire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains.
A top Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, told journalists in Iran:
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he still had hopes for a diplomatic solution on the Israeli-Lebanon border.
I don’t think that war is inevitable. I think there’s always room and opportunity for diplomacy, and I’d like to see parties pursue those opportunities.
But international diplomats trying to defuse tensions were alarmed. One Western diplomat, whose country has worked to prevent an Israeli-Hezbollah escalation, said:
[T]he strikes in Beirut and Tehran have almost killed hopes for a Gaza cease-fire and could push the Middle East into a devastating regional war.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation. Nothing was said about Oct. 7 when Israel was ruthlessly attached by Hamas.
In a statement by his office, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after its strike on the Hezbollah commander in Beirut:
Israel doesn’t want war, but we are preparing for all possibilities.
He did not mention the Haniyeh killing, and a U.S.-provided summary of his call with Austin did not mention it.
NOTE: Israel often refrains from commenting on assassinations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency or strikes on other countries.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, meets Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran
Hamas’ military wing said in a statement that Haniyeh’s assassination:
Takes the battle to new dimensions and will have major repercussions on the entire region.
Netanyahu has said Israel will continue its devastating campaign in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated.
On Wednesday, he asserted that “everything” Israel has achieved in recent months was because it resisted pressure at home and abroad to end the war.
