Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, Palestinian group Hamas said, drawing fears of a wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel’s offensive in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president, and said it was investigating.

They added that one of Haniyeh’s bodyguards was also killed in their residence in Tehran early on Wednesday, Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA reported.

• Haniyeh’s bodyguard also killed in their residence, say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
• News comes within a day of Israel’s claim of killing Hezbollah commander behind Golan strike
• Pakistan “deeply shocked”, views growing “Israeli adventurism” with serious concern
• US says “not aware of or involved” in killing while Middle East countries term it “cowardly action”, “heinous crime”
• China, Russia warn of further regional escalation

There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Israeli military said it was conducting a situational assessment but had not issued any new security guidelines for civilians.

The news, which came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, appears to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

“This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

“We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives. Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons,” he said.

Zuhri vowed Hamas would continue the path it was following, adding: “We are confident of victory.”

Iran’s top security body is expected to meet to decide Iran’s strategy in reaction to the death of Haniyeh, a close ally of Tehran, said a source with knowledge of the meeting.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of Haniyeh and Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank called for a general strike and mass demonstrations.

Abbas is a rival of Haniyeh but slammed the killing as “cowardly”.

“President Mahmud Abbas of the State of Palestine strongly condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, deeming it a cowardly act and a serious escalation,” Abbas’s office said in a statement.

“He urged our people and their forces to unite, remain patient, and stand firm against the Israeli occupation.”

Haniyeh’s son, Abdul Salam, said his father “survived four assassination attempts during his patriotic journey, and today Allah has granted him the martyrdom that he always wished for”.

“He was very keen to establish national unity and strived for the unity of all Palestinian factions and we affirm that this assassination will not deter the resistance, which will fight until freedom is achieved,” he said.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened “harsh punishment” for Haniyeh’s killing, saying: “We consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement later today: “The Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act.”

“Such measures are a sign that the policies of the Zionist regime have reached a dead end,” he added.

A former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaie, warned that Israel would “pay a heavy price” for assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran, Iranian state media reported.

Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, has been the face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy as the offensive set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 has raged in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office requested an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes at the same time it issued a similar request against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Appointed to the Hamas top job in 2017, Haniyeh has moved between Turkiye and Qatar’s capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in ceasefire talks or to talk to Hamas’ ally Iran.

The assassination of Haniyeh comes as Israel’s campaign in Gaza approaches the end of its 10th month with no sign of an end to a conflict that has shaken the Middle East and threatened to spiral into a wider regional conflict.

Despite anger at Netanyau’s government from families of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza and mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar appear to have faltered.

At the same time, the risk of a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has grown following the strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze village on Saturday and the subsequent killing of the senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

The conflict started on Oct 7 when Hamas-led fighters broke through security barriers around Gaza and launched a devastating attack on Israeli communities nearby, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 hostages in Gaza.

In response, Israel launched a relentless ground and air offensive in the densely populated coastal enclave that has killed more than 39,000 people and left more than two million facing a severe humanitarian crisis.

US ‘not aware of or involved’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States was “not aware of or involved” in Haniyeh’s killing.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that has for everyone, remains,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire was also key to preventing the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city-state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington would work to try to ease tensions but said the US would help defend Israel if it were attacked.

Pakistan views growing ‘Israeli adventurism’ with serious concern

Pakistan condemned the assassination of Haniyeh, stating that it viewed “with serious concern the growing Israeli adventurism in the region”.

Pakistan extended its condolences to Haniyeh’s family and the people of Palestine, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings irrespective of the motives,” it read.

“We are deeply shocked by the timing of this reckless act, coinciding with the inauguration of the President of Iran,” the ministry said, pointing out that the event was attended by several foreign dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.

The foreign ministry said Israel’s “latest acts constitute a dangerous escalation in an already volatile region and undermine efforts for peace”.

Later today, Dar shared a video on X of him with Haniyeh and Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan at the Iranian president’s oath-taking ceremony.

The video showed the trio in a huddle, greeting each other with smiles, as other dignitaries surrounded them.

“Deepest condolences,” Dar said in another post sharing the foreign ministry’s statement.

Senator Sherry Rehman condemned the killing in a statement shared by her party. She said that through it, Israel had given a message that “no one can stop us”.

The senior politician highlighted that the “serious attack on Tehran’s soil shows that Israel is not serious about talks and a ceasefire” in Gaza.

“This is not only an attack on Hamas but also on Iran’s sovereignty,” Rehman asserted, warning that the action could worsen the situation in the Middle East.

Condemnations pour in

While many countries in the Middle East condemned Haniyeh’s killing, they also warned that it would have a major impact on efforts to bring a ceasefire in Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

President Pezeshkian said on X: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will defend its territorial integrity, honour, pride and dignity, and make the terrorist invaders regret their cowardly action.”

The foreign ministry of Qatar, where Haniyeh was based and which has been a mediator in the Gaza conflict, called the killing a “heinous crime”.

The ministry said the strike in Tehran was a “dangerous escalation” and “a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law”.

“This assassination and the reckless Israeli behaviour of continuously targeting civilians in Gaza will lead to the region slipping into chaos and undermine the chances of peace”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he was “deeply saddened” to hear that Haniyeh had been “martyred”, adding that he had become a symbol of Palestinian resistance.

“He had devoted his life to the Palestinian cause, and to bringing peace and tranquility to Palestine,” Fidan said on social media platform X, sharing a photograph of himself and Haniyeh.

The Turkish foreign ministry also offered its condolences to the “Palestinian people who have given hundreds of thousands of martyrs like Haniyeh in order to live in peace in their own homeland”.

“This attack also aims to spread the war in Gaza to a regional level. If the international community does not take action to stop Israel, our region will face much greater conflicts,” the Turkish ministry warned in a statement.

“It is a completely unacceptable political assassination, and this will lead to a further escalation of tensions,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Konstantin Kosachev, the vice-president of Russia’s upper house Federation Council, predicted a “sudden escalation of mutual hatred” in the Middle East.

China also joined the condemnations, with foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying: “We are highly concerned about the incident and firmly oppose and condemn the assassination.”

Malaysia’s foreign ministry said it “unequivocally condemns all acts of violence, including targeted assassination, and urges all peace-loving nations to join in denouncing such acts”.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers called Haniyeh’s death “a great loss”.

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Hezbollah, who are in a growing standoff with Israel, said in a statement that the killing would only “make their resolve stronger in confronting the Zionist enemy”.

The group described Haniyeh as “one of the great resistance leaders of our time who stood bravely against the American hegemony project and the Zionist occupation.”

Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, called targeting Haniyeh a “heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values”.

Areepen Uttarasin, a veteran Thai politician and former Gaza hostage negotiator, stressed that the assassination was “very serious because it occurred in Iran”. “It shows that Hamas’s opponents can strike anywhere,” he highlighted.