Hamas’s armed wing said Wednesday that the killing of its political leader Ismail Haniyeh takes the war with Israel to a “new levels,” warning of repercussions for the entire region.
“The criminal assassination of leader Haniyeh in the heart of the Iranian capital is a watershed and dangerous event that takes the war to new levels and will have enormous consequences for the entire region,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, whose fighters are engaged in fierce battles with Israeli troops in Gaza, said in a statement.
The Hamas’s top political leader was killed in Iran.
In a statement, the Palestinian group said Haniyeh, who lived in exile, was killed after a “treacherous Zionist” attack on his residence.
The assassination is a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV cited senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also confirmed Haniyeh’s death, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted to have said: “Haniyeh’s martyrdom in Tehran will strengthen the deep and unbreakable bond between Tehran, Palestine, and the resistance,”
It was the second high-profile assassination to be attributed to Israel in a matter of hours, after a strike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander, heightening fears that the region was sliding towards a full-blown war.