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Aug

Hamas leader’s assassination puts ceasefire talks in jeopardy

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By Our Correspondent

New Delhi | Friday | 2 August 2024

The brutal assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he went to attend the inauguration of the country’s new President, has plunged the entire Middle East into crisis and put the ceasefire talks between the Palestinian resistance group and Israel in jeopardy. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced Haniye’s death on July 31, saying his residence in Tehran was hit and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

Hamas said in a statement: “Brother, leader, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new [Iranian] President.” Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages taken during the October 7 attack, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas Political Bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure having become Palestinian Prime Minister in 2006 following the victory of Hamas in that year’s parliamentary election.

 

Article at a Glance
The Middle East has been plunged into crisis following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli strike in Tehran. Haniyeh, who was attending the inauguration of Iran's new President, was killed along with a bodyguard. The attack has sparked widespread condemnation and outrage, with Palestinian factions calling for unity and a general strike to protest the killing.

Haniyeh was a key figure in Hamas, serving as the group's leader since 2017. He was known for his pragmatism and ability to maintain good relations with other Palestinian factions. His assassination has dealt a significant blow to Hamas and has threatened to derail ceasefire talks between the group and Israel.

The international community has condemned the attack, with Qatar's Prime Minister questioning the viability of talks amid Israel's escalation. The US, Egypt, and Qatar have been mediating talks between Israel and Hamas, but the latest round of negotiations collapsed last week.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to destroy Hamas and has been accused of stalling talks to appease his far-right coalition. The attack on Haniyeh has been seen as a deliberate attempt to escalate the conflict and provoke a response from Iran.

The assassination has sparked widespread solidarity among Palestinian factions, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemning the killing and calling for a day of mourning. The attack has also been condemned by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has vowed to punish those responsible.

The situation in the Middle East remains volatile, with the potential for further escalation and conflict. The international community must act to prevent further violence and promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

 

Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar. He had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian Presidents. Haniyeh was said to maintain good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas.

Haniyeh joined Hamas in 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian ‘Intifada’ (uprising) against Israeli occupation, which lasted till 1993. Israel’s attack on Gaza has so far killed at least 39,400 people. On the other hand, the Palestinian cause continues to be a centrepiece of the foreign policy of Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Three sons of Haniyeh were earlier killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on April 10 this year. The three sons — Hazem, Amir and Mohammed — were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp. Two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack and a third was wounded, according to Hamas.

The airstrikes which killed Haniyeh in Tehran came shortly after an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburb targeted Hezbollah’s senior leader Faud Shukr. The international community has perceived both incidents as acts of escalation by Israel that could trigger a major response from the Iran-backed ‘Axis of Resistance’ which supports Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iran’s Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were hosting Haniyeh and he reportedly stayed in a building of Iran’s army veterans. Palestinian Islamic Jihad official Ziad Nakhaleh was reportedly in the same building. After he arrived in Tehran, Haniyeh met with President Pezeshkian as well as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Nearly 10 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the attacks have threatened to bring the region closer to an all-out conflagration. Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. have tried to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war and achieve a prisoner-captive swap deal. According to the observers of Middle East politics, such a deal is not likely to happen anytime soon.

While Qatar has questioned the viability of any talks amid Israel’s escalation, Western officials were quick to engage with Doha to keep the negotiations on track. Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X: “Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza, while talks continue, leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side? Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life.”

The latest round of talks collapsed last week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came with more demands. Political observers believe that the Israeli escalation and Netanyahu's stalling of the talks are all deliberate, as he tries to appease his far-right coalition and the Israeli public amid discontent and deep internal divisions. Netanyahu faces arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Unlike the strikes near Beirut which targeted Hezbollah’s Shukr, the attack in Tehran which killed Haniyeh was unprovoked. Far from making an effort for a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is seeking to escalate the conflict. Israel has also tried to provoke Iran to retaliate, which it is likely to do. The Haret Hreik and Tehran strikes are the most major attacks to target Hezbollah and Hamas since October 7, when the Gaza offensive began.

Hezbollah had earlier declared that it would end the hostilities with Israel if an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza is entered into, but Tel Aviv had made it clear that a truce in Gaza does not necessarily mean that the Israeli military would halt attacks on Lebanon. After Haniye’s assassination, any kind of deal is likely to be preceded by an escalation of conflict.

Palestinian factions have called for unity and a general strike to protest the killing of Haniye, saying it came in the framework of Zionist state terrorism and its war of extermination. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that he condemned the assassination of leader Haniyeh and “calls on our people and their forces to unite and stand firm.”

In an unusual display of solidarity with his main political rival, Abbas called for a day of mourning for the man he had named Prime Minister in 2006 and dismissed in 2007. Flags will be flown at half-mast during the mourning. The Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah condemned the “treacherous assassination” of Haniyeh and called on Palestinians to remain united in the face of the Israeli occupation.

Employees of government ministries in Ramallah left their offices in response to the strike call on July 31.

Shops closed and employees left work in several cities in the occupied West Bank, while cultural institutions announced that they would remain closed.

“The Israeli crime of assassinating Ismael Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, will not break the Palestinian resistance or the Palestinian people’s determination to achieve our freedom,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian politician who heads the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees. “Of course, it will escalate the situation,” he said. “And this is what Netanyahu wants, he knows that the end of this war is the end of his political career,” he observed.

A funeral for Haniyeh will be held in Tehran on August 1 and then his body will be transferred to Qatar’s capital Doha for prayers and burial. Hamas’ deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said that Hamas and Iran do not want a regional war, but there is a crime that should be punished. Avenging Haniyeh’s assassination is “Tehran’s duty” because it occurred in the Iranian capital, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said.

Khamenei said Israel had provided the grounds for “harsh punishment” for itself. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the country will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honour and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act”. Although Israel has not formally commented, several Israeli ministers have privately reacted to Haniyeh’s assassination and tried to justify the incident.

Haniyeh was seen as the overall leader of Hamas, though it was not clear how much authority he could exercise over Hamas in Gaza. Like Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Haniyeh was also involved with Hamas’ radical operations in the late 1980s and got arrested several times by the Israelis. After he was released from jail in 1992, Israel exiled him, along with a group of other Hamas leaders, to a no-man’s land in southern Lebanon.

A year later, Haniyeh returned to Gaza. His quick rise within Hamas began after he was chosen to head the office of the movement’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 1997. Sheikh Yassin, a quadriplegic and nearly blind, was killed by an Israeli strike in March 2004.

Haniyeh played a major role in building up Hamas’ fighting capacity, partly by nurturing ties with Iran, which makes no secret of its support for the group. During the decade in which Haniyeh was Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Israel accused his leadership team of helping to divert humanitarian aid to the group’s military wing. However, Hamas always denied the charges.

Haniyeh was an early advocate of Hamas entering politics. In 1994, he said that forming a political party would enable Hamas to deal with emerging developments. He had recently declared that Hamas had not abandoned the armed struggle and said the Palestinian resistance would continue in all forms, including the popular resistance, and political, diplomatic and military resistance.

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