Hamas vows revenge after political leader Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has pledged to take revenge after its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Haniyeh “passed as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid,” the movement said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns the sons of our great Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation, and all the free people of the world,” it said.
Mousa Abu Marzook, a member of Hamas’ political bureau denounced the assassination as a “cowardly action” that would not go unanswered.
Senior Hamas’ spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also reacted to the assassination, saying, “We are waging an open war to liberate [the holy occupied city of] al-Quds and are ready to pay any price.”
Other Palestinian groups joined the chorus of condemnation and condolence, while pledging to make the occupying entity pay the price of the assassination.
‘Haniyeh made ultimate sacrifice toward Palestinian cause’
Maher al-Taher, international relations officer of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), hailed Haniyeh as a leader who made the ultimate sacrifice toward realization of the Palestinian cause.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“The Israeli enemy crosses all red lines and is pushing things toward a comprehensive war with the entire Resistance Axis,” which is “fully prepared for confrontation,” he stated.
“The enemy … will regret the sin it committed by assassinating Haniyeh and attacking Iranian sovereignty,” the Palestinian official warned.
He noted that the regime would not have been able to commit the atrocity “without American cover,” referring to the unreserved support being provided to Tel Aviv by its biggest ally, the United States.
Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in an attack in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
The Islamic Jihad, Hamas’s fellow Gaza-headquartered resistance movement, denounced the “sinful assassination” that had targeted “a symbol of the resistance.”
The movement, however, asserted that the atrocity would not deter the Palestinian nation from staying on the path of resistance and keeping up their efforts to put an end to the regime’s crimes that had “exceeded all limits.”
“We affirm our cohesion with our brothers in the Hamas movement in resisting the usurping entity.”
Mohammad al-Hindi, the Islamic Jihad’s deputy secretary general, also described Haniyeh’s assassination as a “great loss” for the Palestinian nation, but insisted that the Israeli enemy was “completely mistaken” if it thought it could defeat the resistance by taking out its leaders.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, echoed the condemnations, describing the assassinations as a “cowardly action” and a “dangerous development.”
Various Palestinian groups, meanwhile, called for sweeping protests and a general strike across the occupied Palestinian territories in condemnation of the assassination.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had announced the martyrdom, saying that the assassination targeting the Hamas’ leader’s residence in Tehran had also claimed the life of one of Haniyeh’s bodyguards.
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The development came amid Hamas’ all-out efforts to defend Gaza against an ongoing genocidal war by the Israeli regime, and the movement’s participation in negotiations aimed at bringing about a truce to end the brutal military onslaught.
