Iran vows revenge for death of Hamas leader in Tehran

Fears of regional war rising as death came hours after Israel claimed to have killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut

- ALISHA RAHAMAN SARKAR

Iran has vowed revenge for the assassination of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in an airstrike in Tehran, an attack that brings the Middle East to the brink of a region-wide war.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian. The assassination took place hours after Israel claimed to have killed a commander for Iran ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital Beirut in retaliation for a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge for the killing of Haniyeh. In a statement, he said that Israel “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear guest in our home”, adding: “We consider his revenge as our duty.”

The Israeli government has been hunting Hamas leaders since the militant group attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,130 people and taking 251 hostages.

In April, Haniyeh said his three sons and three grandchildren had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, where Israel’s war against Hamas has displaced more than 90 per cent of the population and killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run strip.

Hamas has vowed to retaliate over Haniyeh’s death, calling it a “cowardly act” that will not “go unpunished”. Its armed wing said in a statement that Haniyeh’s killing would “take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions”. Vowing to retaliate, Iran declared three days of national mourning and said the US bears responsibility because of its support for Israel.

“The iron hand that will strike them, is the one that will bring peace and a little comfort and strengthen our ability to live in peace,” Israel’s heritage minister Amichay Eliyahu said in a post on X.