Mumbai: The leader of the political wing of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, was killed on Tuesday in an airstrike in Tehran. He had just attended the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
About The Airstrike
Iranian News agency IRNA reported that at 2 am local time an “airborne guided projectile’’ struck the building where Haniyeh was staying, a residence for veterans in the north of the city. Though nobody claimed responsibility for the attack it is a foregone conclusion as to who stands to gain from the action: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accordingly sworn revenge on Israel, a sign that escalation could be afoot.
According to a statement attributed to him, Khamenei said Israel "prepared a harsh punishment for itself. We consider his revenge as our duty." Oddly enough Haniyeh has spent time in an Israeli prison and was briefly elected Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority before he moved to Doha where he took up residence and rose to become the head of the political wing of the Hamas.
His rude removal from the scene surely will impact the complicated peace talks that Hamas and Israel have been engaged in via interlocutors and third countries -- US, Egypt, and Qatar. Haniyeh has been described as a key backer of the process. The action has reduced the American President, already a lame duck, to utter irrelevance, a sentiment that found voice in the US Secretary of State voicing incomprehension over the strike, other than saying that America had no hand in it.
US President Joe Biden On 6-Week Ceasefire
Biden had said in June that Israel was amenable to a six-week initial ceasefire with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages, even as "a permanent end to hostilities" was worked out through mediators. That plan, elusive as it was, looks as though it is off the table for the foreseeable future. Relentless military action by Israel in Gaza has taken the lives of about 40,000 Palestinians, and this number looks set to mount.
Meanwhile, the strategic gains, of taking out the military leaders of Hamas or of rescuing whatever hostages remain, look chimerical. But it suits Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces increasingly strident protests about his handling of a war that critics have labeled as cynical and political observers note is crucial to his survival.
The attack comes designed to provoke Iran at a time when a new president is taking office. The attack comes at a time when Israel has been preparing to enlarge its military engagement with Hezbollah as well. By shifting the goalposts and targeting a non-military person, Netanyahu has signaled that he is going flat out in this asymmetrical war: the more Palestinians are killed, the further Netanyahu remains from his goal. It is not clear if Tehran will immediately do something that will lead to escalation, although it has promised to.
