TEHRAN: Hamas said Wednesday its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a Zionist strike in Iran, where he was attending the swearing-in of the new president, and vowed the act “will not go unanswered”. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei too threatened “harsh punishment” for Haniyeh’s killing, saying: “We consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement later Wednesday: “The Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act. Such measures are a sign that the policies of the Zionist regime have reached a dead end.” Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him “directly” in a state guesthouse where he was staying, Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, told a news conference in Tehran, quoting witnesses who were with Haniyeh. “Now we are waiting for the full investigation from the (Iranian) brothers,” Al-Hayya said.

Kuwait’s ministry of foreign affairs, in strong terms on Wednesday, expressed condemnation by Kuwait of the attack that targeted the Islamic Republic of Iran and assassinated Haniyeh.

The ministry, in a statement, expressed deep concern at the criminal and irresponsible act by the Zionist entity, affirming that such hostile action is a dangerous development and flagrant breach of international laws and norms, namely respect for independent states’ sovereignty.

The ministry noted Kuwait’s call upon the United Nations and other entities of the international community to take an immediate and firm stance to avert military escalation that will embroil the region and the world in the mayhem of chaos and violence and undermine peace prospects.

It renewed the call on the Zionist occupation government to stop the attacks and the genocides of the Palestinian people. The ministry offered condolences, on behalf of Kuwait, to the Palestinian people and leadership.

The Zionist entity declined to comment on the Tehran strike, which came after it struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut on Tuesday, targeting a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group it blamed for a deadly weekend rocket strike on the Zionist-annexed Golan Heights. A source close to Hezbollah group told AFP that the body of top commander Fuad Shukr had been recovered Wednesday, almost 24 hours after he was killed in the Zionist strike.

The source, who requested anonymity, said “Shukr’s body has been found under the rubble of the targeted building”. The raid on the Beirut suburb, an overcrowded residential area that is also a Hezbollah bastion, killed five civilians – three women and two children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The Zionist entity “delivered crushing blows to all our enemies”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, explicitly mentioning the killing of Shukr in south Beirut. “We’ve eliminated (Hezbollah chief Hassan) Nasrallah’s right-hand man, who was directly responsible for the massacre of children,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

Qatar, which has been spearheading efforts with Egypt and the United States to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, said the killing of Haniyeh, Hamas’ lead negotiator, threw the whole process into doubt. “Brother leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.

Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzouk vowed the group would retaliate. “The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and will not go unanswered,” he said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was hit and he was killed along with a bodyguard. Iranian media said the 2:00 am (2230 GMT) strike targeted “the special residences for war veterans in north Tehran” where Haniyeh was staying.

Haniyeh had traveled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in of Pezeshkian. The government, following the news of the killing, declared three days of national mourning. An “official and public” funeral ceremony for Haniyeh will be held in Tehran on Thursday before his body is flown to Qatar, his base in recent years, for burial on Friday, Hamas said.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemned Haniyeh’s killing as a “cowardly act”. Palestinian factions in the Zionist-occupied West Bank called for a general strike and protest marches across the territory. Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its Oct 7 attacks on the Zionist entity. The Zionist retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,445 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, mostly women and children. Regional tensions have soared during the war, drawing in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Qatar’s prime minister, who has spearheaded efforts to broker a truce and hostage release deal between the Zionist entiy and Hamas, said Haniyeh’s killing threw the whole mediation process into doubt. “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani asked in a post on X. “Peace needs serious partners.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a ceasefire in Gaza was still the “imperative”. Speaking at a forum in Singapore, Blinken refused to comment directly on the killing of Haniyeh, but said reaching a ceasefire in Gaza “is the enduring imperative”. Speaking in a interview with Channel News Asia, Blinken said the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the strike that killed Haniyeh.

Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators had met Zionist negotiators in Rome on Sunday in their latest push for a deal as international pressure for a ceasefire mounts. Concern grew among Zionists over the fate of the dozens of captives still held captive in Gaza. Haniyeh’s killing “was a mistake as it threatens the possibility of having a hostage deal,” said Anat Noy, a resident of the coastal city of Haifa.

The Tehran strike which killed Haniyeh came hours after the Zionist said it had killed senior Hezbollah military commander Shukr in a strike on the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Chairing a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned: “The strike on the southern suburbs is a strike on... efforts for calm.”

Residents in besieged Gaza feared Haniyeh’s death would prolong the fighting that has devastated the enclave. “What a loss. We lost one of our very own,” said Gaza resident Fatima Al Saati. Another neighbor, Hachem Al-Saati, said: “This news is scary. We feel that he was like a father to us.”

Haniyeh’s most likely successor is Khaled Meshaal, his deputy-in-exile who lives in Qatar, analysts and Hamas officials said. Under Meshaal, Hamas emerged as an ever more important player in the Middle East conflict due to his charisma, popularity and regional standing, analysts said. Meshaal narrowly survived an attempt on his life in Jordan ordered by Netanyahu in 1997.

Appointed to the top Hamas job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in the truce talks or to talk to Hamas’ ally Iran. Three of his sons were killed in a Zionist airstrike in April. His deputy Saleh Al-Arouri was killed in January by the Zionist entity, leaving Yehya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza and the architect of the Oct 7 attack on the Zionist entity, and Zaher Jabarin, the head of the group in the West Bank, in place but in hiding. – Agencies