Israel's assassination raises the Middle East threat level

At first sight, Israel's ability to strike a deadly blow at its key Palestinian enemy, in the heart of the Iranian capital, in the middle of the night, is evidence of its mastery of the modern battlefield.

- MARK ALMOND

As with its targeting of Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah's veteran military commander, in Beirut a few hours earlier, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran showed that, for Israel’s foes, there is no hiding place.

Yet Israel’s own long record of finding and killing organisers of anti-Israeli violence suggests that assassination is a dead end if it is meant to stifle terrorist groups and insurgents with a popular base. Making a martyr of Haniyeh will no doubt be satisfying for many Israelis who see him as the architect of the rampage on 7 October, which cost so many Israeli lives and led to hostages being taken into Gaza.