Turkey and Pakistan have declared a day of mourning on Friday in memory of Ismail Haniyeh.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was laid to rest in Qatar on Friday after he was killed in Tehran, an attack blamed on Israel that has heightened regional tensions as the Gaza war drags on.

Haniyeh was laid to rest in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, with thousands of people attending the funeral at the Gulf emirate’s largest mosque.

Haniyeh, the political head of the Palestinian armed group, played a key role in mediating talks between Hamas and Israel to end the nearly 10-month war in the Gaza Strip.

The burial was limited to a small number of people, including one of Hania’s daughters, Sara, who shared a video on social media showing her pouring holy water on a pebble grave before lowering her head to kiss him. is putting

“In that moment, I buried my soul under the dust and I walked away. I walked away with all the pain in the world in my ribs,” she captioned the video uploaded to X.

Earlier on Friday, mourners lined up inside the Imam Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahab Mosque, where Haniyeh’s coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, was briefly carried amid the cries of angry mourners.

Others prayed outside on mats in temperatures of 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit).

“He was a symbol, a resistance leader … people are angry,” said Tahir Adel, 25, a Jordanian student living in the Qatari capital.

Haniyeh’s predecessor, Khalid Meshaal, addressed the event, saying he had “served his cause, his people… and never left them”.

Turkey and Pakistan declared a day of mourning on Friday to pay their respects to Haniyeh, while Hamas called for a “day of rage”.

Many mourners in Doha wore scarves with the Palestinian flag mixed with a checkered keffiyeh pattern and the message in English: “Free Palestine”.

High-profile murders

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn “collision” at his residence in Tehran on Wednesday. Haniyeh was in Iran a day ago to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pizshakyan.

Israel has not directly commented on the attack, which has been blamed on Hamas, Iran and others.

The killing of Qatar-based Haniyeh is among several incidents since April that have heightened regional tensions during the Gaza war, which has drawn Iran-backed armed groups into Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement told AFP that Iranian officials met with representatives of the groups on Wednesday to discuss next steps, either “on behalf of Iran and its allies.” Simultaneous reaction or surprise reaction by each party”.

Israeli Defense Minister Yves Gallant met his visiting British counterpart John Haley on Friday and “established a coalition” to “support Israel’s defense against Iran and its proxies,” Gallant’s office said. Importance”.

An army statement said army chief Herzi Halvi told soldiers that Israel would respond “very strongly” to any attack.

France urged its citizens visiting Iran to leave “due to the growing risk of military tensions”.

During the Gaza war, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire almost daily, and did so again on Friday.

In Gaza, the Civil Defense Agency reported several deaths in the north of the enclave, and Israel’s military said it had killed around 30 operatives near Rafah in the south.

Haniyeh’s killing came hours after an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut killed Fouad Shukar, a military commander of Hezbollah, an ally of Lebanon’s Hamas.

Haniyeh’s deputy, Saleh al-Aruri, was assassinated in Beirut earlier this year.

On Thursday, Israel confirmed the death of Hamas military chief Mohammed Def in a July strike in Gaza.

Deal ‘off the table’

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

The attack on southern Israel killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP figures based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas operatives also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, of which 39 soldiers have been killed.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry, which did not provide details on civilian and militant casualties.

The fighting has created a serious humanitarian crisis in the besieged region. About two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza, or 151,265 structures, have been damaged or destroyed during the war, the UN Satellite Center said on Friday.

On Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led a prayer for Haniyeh in Tehran, having previously threatened “severe punishment” for her murder.

The New York Times, citing Middle East officials, reported that Haniyeh was killed weeks ago by an explosive device planted in a Tehran guesthouse.

Asked about the report, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters that “there were no other Israeli airstrikes in the entire Middle East” on the night of Shukar’s killing in Lebanon.

Israel said Shukar’s killing — for which Hezbollah said retaliation was “inevitable” — was in response to rocket fire that killed 12 youths in the Golan Heights last week.

The Iranian news agency Fars has dismissed the American report as a lie and said that the death of the leader of Hamas was caused by a projectile.

Analyst Hugh Lovatt said Haniyeh’s killing would mean a cease-fire deal with Israel is now completely off the table.

US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and reaffirmed his commitment to defend Israel’s security “against all threats from Iran,” the White House said.

“We have the basis for a cease-fire (in Gaza) … they should move on that now,” Biden told reporters after the call.

(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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