Iran () Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has led funeral prayers at a memorial event for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the capital\u2019s city centre, thousands of mourners with posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags gathered on Thursday at Tehran University.
Following the prayers, massive crowds accompanied the body of Haniyeh and his bodyguard also killed in the strike on Wednesday, in a 5km (3-mile) funeral procession through Tehran towards Azadi (Freedom) Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haniyeh\u2019s body will then be flown to the Qatari capital, Doha, for burial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ceremony opened with an address from Iran\u2019s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. \u201cMartyr Ismail Haniyeh was the voice of the Palestinian people all over the world,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was not only a leader. He was the wise man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghalibaf added that Haniyeh\u2019s assassination in Tehran would not go unanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur reply will be there. At the right time and the right place. It is difficult for us to have our guest being targeted and assassinated on our soil,\u201d he said.
The mood in Tehran was mixed, said Al Jazeera\u2019s Resul Serdar, commenting from Doha. \u201cOn the one hand, Iranians are really irritated by these ongoing killings because this is not the first assassination to have happened in Iran,\u201d he said.
\u201cOn the other hand, you will see that the Iranian public is quite concerned about any serious retaliation that could lead to a regional war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed in a strike on their accommodation in the Iranian capital early on Wednesday. The Hamas leader was in Tehran for the inauguration of newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khamenei promised \u201charsh punishment\u201d for Israel and said that it was \u201cour duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pezeshkian said Wednesday that \u201cthe Zionists (Israel) will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzouk also promised retaliation, saying: \u201cThe assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and will not go unanswered.\u201d
Israel has declined to comment on the Tehran strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The assassination came just hours after Israel targeted and killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a retaliatory strike on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, sending fears of a wider regional war soaring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the strikes in Tehran and Beirut represented a \u201cdangerous escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All efforts, he said, should be \u201cleading to a ceasefire\u201d in Gaza and the release of captives taken during the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Health says at least 39,445 people have been killed and 91,073 wounded in Israel\u2019s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran () Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has led funeral prayers at a memorial event for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. In the capital\u2019s city centre, thousands of mourners with posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags gathered on Thursday at Tehran University.Following the prayers, massive crowds accompanied the body of Haniyeh and his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n