The official funeral of the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in a strike attributed to Israel, began on Thursday, August 1 in the center of the capital. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will preside over the prayer ceremony in memory of Ismail Haniyeh, whom he hailed as ““a remarkable fighter of the Palestinian resistance”before his burial on Friday in Qatar where he lived in exile. A crowd of mourners, carrying portraits of the Hamas leader and Palestinian flags, gathered at Tehran University in the center. Follow our live coverage.
A strike attributed to Israel. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed Wednesday in Tehran in a strike blamed on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union. He was in the Iranian capital after attending the inauguration ceremony of reformist President Massoud Pezeshkian.
Hezbollah leader killed in Lebanon. Hezbollah announced on Wednesday the death of military leader Fouad Chokr, who was targeted the previous day by an Israeli strike near Beirut. The Israeli army had announced earlier that it had “eliminated” Fouad Chokr, who according to her is “the highest military official” of Hezbollah and “Hassan Nasrallah’s right arm”the leader of the movement.
A fear of conflagration. The assassination of the political leader of Hamas in Tehran and the Israeli strike that killed the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah near Beirut have raised fears of a contagion of the war that has been raging for almost ten months in the Gaza Strip. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has thus feared that these attacks “represent a dangerous escalation”Many members of the UN Security Council, which met urgently on Wednesday at the request of Iran, were also concerned about the risk of a flare-up in the Middle East.