Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, was buried in Qatar amidst promises of retaliation against Israel

After being assassinated in Tehran, the capital of Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was buried in Qatar on Friday. His potential successor, speaking to the mourners, said that Haniyeh’s passing will only strengthen the Palestinian terrorist group’s resolve to fight Israel.

The assassination of senior Hamas figures, including Haniyeh, came as the confrontation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza approached its eleventh month and worries about its potential to expand throughout the Middle East grew.

Both Hamas and Iran have declared they will exact revenge on their enemy, Israel, after accusing it of carrying out the murder. Israel has not disputed nor accepted responsibility for the tragedy.

Following a funeral service at Qatar’s capital Doha’s Iman Mohamed Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab Mosque, Haniyeh was buried in a cemetery in the city of Lusail.

His bodyguard, who was also slain in the same attack in Tehran on Wednesday, and his coffin, covered in the Palestinian flag, were paraded past hundreds of onlookers.

Khaled Meshaal, who is expected to take over as leader of Hamas, was among the mourners present at the service. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, and other high-ranking Hamas representatives were there.

Speaking at the mosque where Haniyeh’s remains was placed for prayer, Meshaal stated that the group would be even more driven to carry on its struggle for a free Palestine in the wake of his passing. He declared that there would be no recognition of Israel and no compromises on its core beliefs.

In a Hamas-produced film, Meshaal declared, “Palestine will remain from the river to the sea…and the Zionists (Israel) have no place on the land of Palestine, regardless of how many of us they kill.”

Though Haniyeh’s passing was a great loss for the cause, he insisted that it would not change their direction.

“After killing our leaders for more than a century, our adversaries still don’t seem to have learned their lesson. What has happened? Another leader emerges when one ascends (to heaven),” he declared.

“Our message to the occupation (Israel) today is that you are sinking deep in the mud and your end is getting closer than ever,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters over the phone. All equations will change because of Haniyeh’s blood.”

According to senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya in Tehran, Haniyeh was assassinated by a missile that struck him directly when he was residing in a state guesthouse in Tehran.

In a battle that currently stretches from Gaza to the Red Sea, the border between Lebanon and Israel, and beyond, the strike was one of many recent ones that have claimed the lives of prominent individuals in Hamas or the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

According to US President Joe Biden, international attempts to broker a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict will not benefit from Haniyeh’s death.

When asked if the action destroyed the chances of a truce, Biden responded to reporters on Thursday, “It doesn’t help.”

Leading the peace process has been Qatar, in conjunction with Egypt and the US, Israel’s principal ally.

MOURNS, WIDOW

When Israel was destroying Gaza, Haniyeh was the face of Hamas’ foreign diplomacy.

In contrast to the more radical members of the Iran-backed faction within Gaza, he was viewed by many diplomats as a pragmatic; yet, some Israeli pundits have claimed that he was viewed by some as a barrier to a solution.

According to Hamas, an Israeli airstrike in April claimed the lives of three of his sons and four of his grandkids in the besieged enclave.
For Palestinian supporters, the leadership of Hamas represents combatants striving for freedom from Israeli oppression, sustaining their cause in the face of failures by international diplomacy.

The Iran-backed Hamas, which has led suicide attacks within Israel and fought multiple wars against it, is viewed by Israelis and Western powers as a terrorist organization determined to destroy Israel.

After being named to the leadership position in Hamas in 2017, Haniyeh traveled between Doha and Turkey to avoid the travel restrictions imposed on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court asked for arrest warrants in May for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas officials, including Haniyeh, on charges of war crimes. 

Leaders in Israel and Palestine have refuted the accusations.

Israel has said that Mohammed Deif, the military chief of Hamas, was killed in Gaza last month by an airstrike. Deif’s death has not been confirmed or refuted by Hamas.

Hezbollah declared a “definite” reaction to the death of its top military commander, Fuad Shukr, which it alleged was caused by an Israeli strike on a facility in Beirut on Tuesday.