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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'
(From R) Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei meets with Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance group, in Tehran, on July 30, 2024. (Photo by khamenei.ir)
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned the Israeli regime of a "harsh response" for the the assassination of Hamas's Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh, saying it is the Islamic Republic's duty to avenge the blood of the Palestinian resistance leader.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks on Wednesday, hours after Haniyeh, who had traveled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president, was killed in a dawn attack in the capital.
“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our homeland and left us bereaved, but it also set the ground for a harsh punishment for itself,” the Leader said.
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.
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.
