THE shocking assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh early on Wednesday in Tehran has plunged the entire Middle East into the unknown, with the threat of a regional conflagration increasingly high.

The Palestinian leader was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. While Israel has not accepted responsibility for this grievous provocation, there can be little doubt who is responsible. Only a few hours before Haniyeh’s killing, the Israelis had bombed a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, apparently to target a top commander.

Following Haniyeh’s murder, an Israeli minister ‘celebrated’ this grim achievement on the social media platform X. The Israelis are playing with fire, and their brinkmanship can push the entire region into a catastrophic maelstrom.

With the assassination, Tel Aviv has thrown the gauntlet at Tehran, and it will be very difficult for Iran not to respond to this grave provocation on its soil. Israel has struck one of Iran’s closest allies in the heart of the ‘axis of resistance’. Tehran needs to conduct a thorough internal investigation to determine just how such a high-profile individual was targeted. This would not be the first time Israel is believed to have struck inside Iran. Top Iranian nuclear scientists and generals have been targeted in similar fashion.

However, whatever the investigation reveals, security was ostensibly lax, and the Iranians should have strengthened their defences considering the string of previous assassinations. Yet retribution is almost certain. The Iranian supreme leader — who has the final say on all major policy decisions — has asserted, with reference to the Haniyeh killing, that it is “our duty to avenge his blood”.

Condemnation of the killing has been pouring in from various quarters. Iran’s brothers in arms in the ‘axis of resistance’ — Hezbollah, the Houthis — have slammed the crime, while Russia has dubbed it an “unacceptable political murder”. China, on the other hand, has said it is “deeply concerned” while Pakistan has criticised “Israeli adventurism”.

The fact that they have been unable to crush Hamas in Gaza over the last nearly 10 months has led Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabal to destabilise the wider Middle East, violating the sovereignty of Syria, Lebanon and Iran. The only way out of this crisis — and the window for peaceful resolution appears to be closing fast — is for an immediate halt to the massacre in Gaza.

Of course, with the Haniyeh assassination, the prospects of a ceasefire appear to have been buried for the foreseeable future. The US can still prevail upon Israel to wind down its murderous campaign. But in an election year, this will be highly unlikely as both contenders compete for the blessings of the Zionist lobby in Washington. The Middle East will surely be on tenterhooks for the next few days.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2024