DOHA – Thousands of mourners converged around the flag-draped coffin of Hamas' slain political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in the emirate of Qatar on Friday as the fallout surged from his death in an alleged Israeli attack.
The funeral ceremony in Doha, Qatar's capital, attended by members of Gaza's militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups as well as Qatari and Iranian officials, was subdued. But across the Muslim world — from Jordan and Morocco to Yemen and Somalia — angry crowds waving Palestinian flags rushed out of mosques after midday Friday prayers, chanting for revenge.
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“Let Friday be a day of rage to denounce the assassination,” said Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official. Haniyeh had lived in Qatar, along with other senior members of Hamas’s political leadership.
Following the back-to-back assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut the evening before, international diplomats have scrambled to head off a full-fledged regional war. Iran and its proxies vowed to retaliate. Major airlines canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Beirut, Lebanon.
Cyprus said Friday it was preparing for possible mass evacuations of foreign citizens via the island nation, in case of a wider war. France beefed up security for Jewish communities nationwide. Poland warned its citizens against traveling to the Mideast.
Pakistan and Turkey lowered their flags to half-staff, prompting Israel to summon Turkey’s deputy ambassador for a “stern reprimand.”
Turkey's foreign ministry spokesperson, Oncu Keceli, shot back that Israel “cannot achieve peace by killing the negotiators” — a reference to Haniyeh's role in cease-fire talks — while hundreds of Turks gathered at the historic Hagia Sophia to pay tribute to the slain Hamas leader as his funeral service got underway in Doha.
“We are sure that his blood will bring out victory, dignity and liberation,” senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, seen as a possible successor to Haniyeh, said from the Doha mosque where Haniyeh's coffin was displayed beside that of his bodyguard who was also killed in the attack in Tehran.
Israel has not confirmed or denied its role in the targeted killing of Haniyeh.
Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in a strike on a guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Iranian president.
Khaled Kaddoumi, Hamas' representative in Iran, was staying on a lower floor. Kaddoumi said he woke up shortly before 2 a.m. when his room was shaken and he saw a flash out the window.
At first, Kaddoumi said he thought it was thunder and lightning or an earthquake. By the time he got out of his room, smoke was everywhere and his colleagues told him Haniyeh was killed. Kaddoumi saw Haniyeh face down, on the floor. He spotted the body of Haniyeh’s bodyguard, holding a bloody Quran. No one else was injured, he said.
There was so much dust and smoke in the room, Kaddoumi had to wear a mask. The roof and the walls overlooking the exterior were destroyed, he said.
Kaddoumi said it looked like the room was hit by a missile. A photo that he said was of the building after the attack appeared to show less structural damage than would typically be seen from a large airstrike. The damage appeared more consistent with a smaller explosive, potentially delivered by a drone or planted at the site.
Kaddoumi said Haniyeh had stayed in the same guesthouse in May, when he attended the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a plane crash.
Haniyeh’s killing was another blow to the Hamas leadership.
On Thursday, Israel announced that it killed the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike. Hamas had previously claimed Deif survived last month’s targeted airstrike in the besieged Gaza Strip, and did not comment on Israel's more recent claim.
The deadly pattern of Israeli airstrikes and skirmishes continued in Gaza, where Palestinian Civil Defense rescuers said a barrage of airstrikes Friday in southern Gaza City killed five Palestinians, including three children. The Israeli military said it had destroyed rocket launchers used by Hamas hours earlier.
There were no services held for Haniyeh in the enclave, where the extent of loss has become so overwhelming that Palestinians are forced to inter their dead family members hurriedly and without last rites.
“We can't memorialize any of our loved ones anymore, funerals are too risky for fear of being killed in bombing ourselves,” said Ahmed Qamar, 35, displaced in a shelter in northern Gaza.
At least 39,480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the nearly 10 months since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war. Palestinian health authorities providing the casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Tensions also ran high on Israel’s northern border days after Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr, the Hezbollah commander. On Friday, Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket and artillery attacks on Israel, causing a fire but no casualties in an evacuated Israeli town. Israel claimed its warplanes struck two Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon who it said had fired the volley of rockets.
The exchange was more of the same tit-for-tat that has flared along the Lebanese-Israeli border throughout the Israel-Hamas war. But Israelis and Lebanese braced for more after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday declared that Shukr's killing had pushed the conflict into a “new phase."
Across the region, vows by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Israel would pay a price for killing Haniyeh on Iranian soil quickly led to calls for intense diplomacy to prevent further escalation.
Late Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize the chance for a cease-fire, adding that Haniyeh's killing in Iran had “not helped" efforts to negotiate an end to the war.
Netanyahu has portrayed Israel's recent targeting of Hamas leaders as victories that bring Israel closer to a deal that would free the roughly 110 remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Mideast peace process, said he was racing to work with Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt and other nations to “prevent a spillover of the conflict.”
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Israel on Friday “to push for an immediate cease-fire," while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he spoke with his American counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“The unprecedented security cooperation between Israel and the United States against Iran and its proxies is critical," Gallant said.
Though approvals are still pending, Austin is preparing to provide additional military support to Israel and boost protection for U.S. troops in the region , against any threats from Iran and its regional proxies, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Friday. That could involve deploying additional military units, she said, declining to provide details.
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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.