Hamas leader buried in Qatar vows revenge

The funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was held in Qatar on Friday (2), following his assassination two days earlier in Tehran, Iran – part of a series of killings of senior figures in the Palestinian militant group, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The ceremony, which took place at a large mosque north of the capital Doha, was attended by Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ potential new leader, other senior Hamas officials and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Read: Tehran blast: How did Hamas leader die?

Haniyeh was buried in a cemetery in the city of Lusail, north of Doha. His coffin, draped in the Palestinian flag, was carried by hundreds of mourners, along with the coffin of his bodyguard, who was killed in the same attack in Tehran on Wednesday (31).

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters at the funeral: “Our message to the occupation (Israel) today is that you are sinking into the mud and your end is closer than ever. Haniyeh’s blood will change all the equations.”

According to senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya, Haniyeh was killed by a missile that directly hit him at a guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying. Witnesses present confirmed the attack.

Both Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of the killing and vowed to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the attack.

The incident was one of several that have killed senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures, raising concerns that the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militants is expanding into a regional conflict.

In the United States, President Joe Biden said Haniyeh’s death undermines international efforts to secure a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, now in its 10th month. “It doesn’t help,” Biden told reporters on Thursday.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has led the peace efforts. Haniyeh served as Hamas’s foreign diplomatic representative during the Gaza war and participated in indirect cease-fire negotiations. He was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared with the group’s more hard-line members, though some Israelis saw him as an obstacle to a deal.

Appointed leader of Hamas in 2017, Haniyeh shuttled between Turkey and Doha, avoiding travel restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Via news agencies.