Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has been killed in Iran’s capital Tehran. Ismail Haniya was the head of the political wing of Hamas. Hamas has confirmed the death of Haniya.
Ismail Haniya attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday. He also met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hamas said that Haniya’s house in Tehran was blown up on Wednesday morning, resulting in her death. Hamas has blamed Israel for this. Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouq said Haniya’s death would not be in vain. He has also called Haniya’s murder a cowardly move.
At the same time, till now nothing has been said on this from Israel. However, Israeli Minister Amichay Netanyahu said that Hania’s death makes the world a little better. He said, ‘This is the right way to clean the filth from the world. no compromise. no mercy.’
How did the attack happen?
Ismail Haniya was living in Doha, the capital of Qatar since 2019. He had gone to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new President Massoud Pezeshkian.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a statement confirming Haniya’s death. IRGC issued a statement saying, ‘This morning the residence of Ismail Haniya in Tehran was attacked, killing him and one of his bodyguards.’
However, no information has been given about when and how this attack happened. IRGC said that it is being investigated. Meanwhile, Iran’s news agency said that the attack took place at around 2.30 in the night.
At the same time, Israel has not said anything on this yet. It is being told that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered all his ministers not to comment on this.
How did Iran become an arena of war?
Israel and Iran have been engaged in a ‘shadow war’ with each other for a long time. Both have often been attacking each other without taking responsibility. But Hamas’ war has also made Iran an arena of war.
Relations between Israel and Iran have worsened after the war with Hamas started. Iran has often denied that it knew in advance about the Hamas attack on October 7. Whereas, Israel has accused Iran of supporting Hamas.
Not only Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels also have Iran’s support. Apart from these, some groups in Iraq and Syria have also received support from Iran. All of them are against Israel in the war with Hamas.
Just 10 days after the war with Hamas started, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened that if Israel’s bombing continued, Muslims and resistance forces would become uncontrollable and then no one would be able to stop them. Khamenei had warned to stop the bombing of Gaza immediately.
There was a cyber attack on Iran on December 18 last year. Due to this cyber attack, the functioning of 70 percent of Iran’s fuel stations was stopped. Iran had blamed Israel for this.
On December 25, Iranian media had claimed that Israel had bombed the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, in which top IRGC commander Razi Mousavi was killed. After this, on January 15, Iran fired ballistic missiles at the post of Israeli spy agency Mossad in Erbil, northern Iraq. Four people were killed and six were injured in this attack.
However, the tension between the two had increased much more in April. In fact, on April 1, Israel attacked the Iranian Consulate in Damascus. IRGC Brigadier Mohammad Reza Zahedi was also killed in this attack. Then on April 13, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles. However, Israel claimed that it had shot down 99 percent of Iran’s missiles and drones. Whereas, Iran said that its objective has been achieved and there is no need to attack further.
What will Iran do now?
In April this year, when Israel attacked Iran’s Consulate in Syria’s capital Damascus, tension increased. In return, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones.
But now the danger of an even bigger war seems to be looming. The reason for this is that Ismail Haniya’s death is a big blow for Iran also. Haniya was a guest of Iran and it has failed to protect her. It is believed that Iran will definitely retaliate on this.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said that Ismail Haniya’s death will not be in vain. Kanani said, Hania’s martyrdom will make the relationship between Iran, Palestine and the Resistance Force stronger and unbreakable.
According to news agency Reuters, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has called a meeting after Haniya’s death. IRGC commander will also be present in this meeting. In this meeting it will be decided how and what response to give to the attack.
Such murders have happened before in Iran
This is not the first time that Israel has been accused of killing someone on Iranian soil. Even before Haniya, Iran has made such allegations against Israel many times.
In the year 2021, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated with a remote control weapon. After this, in May 2022, IRGC Colonel Sayad Khodai was also murdered. Iran had blamed Israel for both these murders.
What could be the impact of the current stress?
The death of Ismail Haniya is being considered the most important Israeli operation after October 7. Although Ismail Haniya was not militarily important, but he was considered an important person for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
CNN’s foreign policy expert Barak Ravid says that Ismail Haniya’s death will definitely affect the ongoing talks between Israel and Hamas.
Due to this, the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza may become more dangerous. Hamas says Haniya’s death will not be in vain. It is believed that after Haniya’s death, Hamas can now target Israel more strongly than before. Not only this, Hamas would now like Iran to directly join this war, because this will only increase the pressure on Israel. If Iran also joins this war, then Hamas hopes that it will get its strict conditions accepted in the ceasefire agreement.
At the same time, now once again the tension in the Middle East has increased and the risk of a major war has increased. However, US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin says that at present there is no danger of war in the Middle East. He also said that if Iran attacks, America will help Israel.
Some experts believe that Iran will avoid a direct war with Israel. Many extremist organizations in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza Strip have the support of Iran, which is known as ‘proxy’. If tension increases, Iran may increase proxy war against Israel.
For now, Ismail Haniya’s murder has served as a spark in the burning Middle East. Iran has called a meeting of the Security Council. At the same time, Israel has not said anything on this yet. Now the biggest question is what does Iran do?