Crowd gathers in Tehran for Hamas leader’s funeral

Funeral of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader killed in Tehran in a strike blamed by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israel, began on Thursday, August 1, in the center of the Iranian capital. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recited the prayer for the dead in front of the coffins of Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, covered with the Palestinian flag. Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, as well as the head of the Revolutionary Guards, the country’s ideological army, Hossein Salami, were present.

A mourning crowd, carrying portraits of the Hamas leader and Palestinian flags, also gathered at Tehran University in central Iran. Iran has also declared three days of national mourning. “following the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh”the Iranian government said on Wednesday. The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement is then due to be buried on Friday in Qatar, where he had been living in exile.