The funeral for Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh has begun in Iran’s capital Tehran.
The ceremony opened with an address from Iran’s parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
“Martyr Ismail Haniyeh was the voice of the Palestinian people all over the world,” he said.
“He was not only a leader. He was the wise man,” Ghalibaf added.
Ghalibaf asserted that Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran would not go unanswered.
“Our 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.”
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers over Haniyeh’s body at Tehran University in the city centre.
Khalil al-Hayya, the Deputy Head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, also addressed the Haniyeh’s funeral service in Tehran.
“The nation today is carrying his coffin, and the nation today is raising the flag of jihad and resistance towards the goal of liberating Palestine and Jerusalem,” al-Hayya said.
“With the faith of our country, and the Palestinian soul, we are sure that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh will bring anger towards this Zionist entity from the entire people of the world.”
Khalil al-Hayya
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.
Haniyeh’s body will then be flown to the Qatari capital, Doha, for burial.
Speaking to a news agency, University of Tehran’s Tohid Asadi said the funeral of Haniyeh in Tehran marked a “very sad moment” for many Iranians and people around the world who support the Palestinian cause.
“What adds to this sadness is the very fact that it takes place in the broader context in which the brutal Zionist regime is killing ordinary citizens on a daily basis. Thousands of them in the past months,” Asadi said, referring to the war in Gaza.
“It’s more proof of Israeli aggression that takes place on the ground, targeting Iranian sovereignty,” Asadi said of the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran.
“They are mad at this current, ongoing situation,” he said.
Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad issued a statement mourning Haniyeh’s assassination, saying that Israel had killed the “great man” because it “feared and hated everything he stood for.”
Mahathir described Haniyeh as “a soft-spoken man, yet with the heart of a lion.”
“His courage to stand up for his people obviously stemmed from a clear conscience and guided by a moral compass that is based on humanity and religious conviction.
“They may kill Mr Haniyeh but not his ideas and what he stood for.”
Mahathir Mohamad
Hezbollah Commander’s Funeral To Take Place
Meanwhile in Lebanon, the funeral of Hezbollah Commander, Fuad Shukur is slated to take place, two days after he was killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment building in Beirut that also killed three women and two children and injured dozens of others.
Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak at the funeral.
Shukr was an adviser to Nasrallah, according to Hezbollah sources.
Israel had blamed him for a strike that killed 12 children, in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which Hezbollah denied.
Shukr’s body was found under the rubble on Wednesday evening, two Lebanese security sources said, nearly 24 hours after the strike that killed him.
Fears have grown that the assassinations – targeting very high-profile commanders in densely populated capital cities – have killed any chance of an imminent ceasefire in Gaza and that the stakes have been raised for Hezbollah and Iran to reassert themselves.
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