Hamas political boss Ismail Haniyeh was killed when an airborne guided projectile hit a special residence for military veterans in the north of Tehran. Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s newly elected President, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel remained silent on the incident. The Israeli media reported that the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered cabinet ministers not to comment on the event. However, far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu celebrated the Hamas leader’s death on social media platforms. “The killing makes the world a little better, “he wrote in Hebrew.
Israel launched a war on Gaza, promising to eliminate Hamas and kill its leaders after the group attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 others captive. At least 39,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war with Israel and 90,996 wounded, reported Al Jazeera on 31 July.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also announced Haniyeh’s death. It said, “Early this morning, the residence of Ismail Haniyeh in Thera was struck, resulting in his and one of his bodyguard’s martyrdoms. The cause is under investigation and will be announced soon.
However, Iranian religious head Khamenei issued a terse warning to Israel, saying the crime would not go unpunished.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s correspondent said the killing was “significant “for the people of Gaza because he was leading negotiations that they hoped would lead to a ceasefire. Whether he had taken his Iranian super-masters on board for peace negotiations or not is a moot point. The subdued statement of the IRGC regarding the assassination of Haniyeh cannot be underestimated. This could be one of the important reasons for the Israeli prime minister to instruct his cabinet colleagues not to comment on the happening as that would lend strength to Iran pointing the finger of accusation toward Israel.
Bomb Theory
According to the New York Times, citing its sources, Haniyeh was assassinated by an explosive device smuggled into the guesthouse where he was staying. The bomb had been planted nearly two months ago in the guesthouse.
How the bomb was smuggled into the guesthouse is clouded in mystery. Sources told NYT that the assassination took months and required comprehensive vigil of the guesthouse.
The blast shattered windows and collapsed a portion of the wall of the compound, but it appeared to do limited damage beyond the building itself, which rules out a missile strike possibility.
At around 2 a.m. local time, the device exploded. The compound is staffed with a medical team that rushed to the room immediately. The team declared Haniyeh dead immediately. The team tried to revive the bodyguard, but he, too, was lifeless.
Gazans Trusted Haniyeh
Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank had been viewing Ismail Haniyeh as a moderate leader who was much more practical than other leaders who head the military side of the movement,” said Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza. This is the reason why the people in Gaza are worried that Haniyeh’s killing could lead to a further escalation of the conflict.
Sami al-Arian, the director of the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, told Al Jazeera, “This is a huge escalation – what happened yesterday in Lebanon, what is happening in Tehran today? It is an escalation [by Israel], and that is going to have significant ramifications.”
China Steps In
Encouraged by the successful mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Beijing showed interest in mediating between the Palestine Authority and Al Fatah, which have been at loggerheads within Palestine.
China’s interest in fostering reconciliation between the two was essentially motivated by creating a united Palestinian front with a strong anti-American slant.
China, which has sought to mediate the conflict, previously hosted Fatah and Hamas in April. During those talks, the pair “expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation through dialogue and consultation” and made progress on “many specific issues,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian said.
The latest round of talks featured Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and Fatah’s deputy head, Mahmoud al-Aloul. Following the signing of what has been referred to as the “Beijing Declaration,” China’s Wang said: “Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community. “China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Russia & Hamas
According to The New York Times of 6th November 2023, Russian state media and leading social networking platforms spread support for Hamas and denigrated Israel and its main ally, the U.S.
Putin has said that the war shows “a clear example of the failure of U.S. policy in the Middle East.” On 14 October, Hamas thanked Putin for his “position regarding the ongoing Zionist aggression against our people,” reported CNN in a broadcast of 23 October 2023.
On 26 October, Moscow hosted a Hamas political delegation led by Mousa Abu Marzook, which Israel condemned as “a reprehensible step that gives support to terrorism and legitimacy to the horrific acts of Hamas terrorists.”
Amid the war’s hostage crisis, Hamas released kidnapped Russian-Israeli dual nationals. Hamas described these actions as a gesture of appreciation for Russia’s support for the Palestinian cause.
But then, In December 2023, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Israel’s stated goals in its invasion of Gaza were similar to Russia’s stated goals in its invasion of Ukraine, reported the Times of Israel on 28 December 2023.
Lifeline For Netanyahu
Haniyeh had come to Tehran as a guest of the Iranian government. Assassination of an honored guest on Iranian soil and under Iranian security cover is a big failure on the part of Teheran. It shows that Iran is incapable of protecting vulnerable persons within the borders of the country.
In April this year, Iran and Israel exchanged a round of missile and drone attacks at each other. Temperatures had cooled since then, but this assassination has the potential to trigger further hostilities.
Iranian President Pezeshkian had said that he would try to mend the fence with European countries to lessen the damage caused by sanctions. In doing so, he had relied on the support of Haniyeh.
It is to be seen how the Iranian President will be able to fulfill the promises of improving relations with the West and pulling Iran out of the economic morass because both Hamas and Iranian clergy-led power would ask for revenge for the killing of Haniyeh. Things have become complicated for the Iranian President.
An important fallout of Haniyeh’s assassination is that it gives a lifeline to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has been facing questions about his leadership, and his political survival was at stake.
There has been growing pressure on him to finally strike the hostage deal with Hamas, which was being brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar, among others.
The assassination has the potential to upend all such efforts for the time being, and it is expected to prolong the war in Gaza. This will mean that Netanyahu will likely stay till the war is over.
Another fallout we can infer is that Kamala Harris, the Presidential candidate in the US, has said she would be tougher with Israel regarding putting an end to Gaza fighting.
She depends on the support of the American – Arab youth who have demonstrated their support for the Palestinians. But with the killing of Haniyeh, there could be an adverse impact on that support, and Kamla may not be able to pursue her policy.
Finally, given the strong statements by the Iranian Supreme religious leader and President Pezeshkian, together with the outbursts of Hamas/Hezbollah leaders and their supporters among the Muslim hardline countries like Egypt and Pakistan, escalation of the crisis in West Asia could be a foregone conclusion.
- Prof. KN Pandita (Padma Shri) is the former director of the Center of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University.
- This article contains the author’s personal views and does not represent EurAsian Times’ policies/views/opinions in any way.
- The author can be reached at knp627 (at) gmail.com
