Al-Jazeera / August 2, 2024
Palestinian group calls for ‘day of furious rage’ to coincide with funeral of Haniyeh who was assassinated in Iran.
Funeral ceremonies for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh are being held in Qatar as commemorations also take place in countries including Turkey, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
On Friday, thousands gathered at Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abdul al-Wahhab Mosque to join ritual prayers ahead of the Palestinian group’s political chief burial in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital.
Representatives of other Palestinian factions and members of the public attended the events in the city, where Haniyeh had lived along with members of Hamas’s political office. His family was at the funeral amid tight security measures at Qatar’s national mosque.
The atmosphere was one of grief and solidarity for Palestinians in Gaza.
“For a lot of people, Haniyeh was a beacon of hope,” Aisha, 23, told Al-Jazeera. “I think it’s important to show our solidarity with the Palestinians and to just make sure that we are here for them, even if we can’t physically do anything, we are still with them.”
Israel has not offered any comment on the assassination but after the October 7 incursion into southern Israel, which was led by Hamas and during which 1,139 people were killed, Israeli officials promised to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders as part of a stated aim to crush the group.
The killing of Haniyeh, which Hamas, Iran and others have blamed on Israel, came hours after Israeli forces struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah. Israel has taken responsibility for this attack.
Hamas called for a “day of furious rage” to coincide with Haniyeh’s burial and encouraged “roaring anger marches … from every mosque” following Friday prayers to protest against the assassination and Israel’s deadliest war on Gaza which since October 7 has killed almost 40,000 people.
Turkey and Pakistan have announced a day of mourning in honour of the Hamas leader.
Thousands gathered at the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul to pay their respects to Haniyeh during the Friday prayer. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was expected to address the event but his visit was cancelled at the last minute.
The Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv lowered its flag to half-staff, drawing the ire of Israeli officials. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded on X to the move, saying, “Representatives of the Turkish Embassy in Israel are invited to take down the flag completely and return home.”
Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the deputy Turkish ambassador for a reprimand.
“The State of Israel will not tolerate expressions of mourning for a murderer like Ismail Haniyeh,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
A symbolic funeral was held in Lebanon’s capital Beirut as anger boiled over the killings of Hezbollah’s Shukr and Haniyeh.
“The feeling here is that we could see an escalation because the [Iran-aligned] “axis of resistance” groups are promising a response,” said Al-Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led a public funeral ceremony for Haniyeh in Tehran on Thursday, before the coffin was transported to Doha. He earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.
Reporting from Tehran, Al-Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said a special committee that includes Iran’s intelligence forces, the Revolutionary Guards and police forces was formed to investigate the assassination, which was “one of the biggest intelligence and security failures in the country’s recent history”.
Ceasefire talks thrown into doubt
Haniyeh was engaged in ceasefire talks with mediators Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States.
US President Joe Biden has said Haniyeh’s killing had “not helped” the situation.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, asked on X: “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?”
Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political bureau with the blessing of the US since 2012 following the group’s closure of its office in Damascus, Syria.
The international community called for calm amid fears of an intense regional conflict.
Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, told Al-Jazeera that Iran and its allies were facing a “very delicate” moment.
“They need to calibrate the response to recover the deterrence that was [lost] without sliding into an all-out war,” he said.
Tor Wennesland, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said it was “crucial that we act decisively and collectively to address the immediate threats and lay the groundwork for a lasting peace”.
Source: Al-Jazeera and news agencies
