1 August 2024
•
26 Tamuz 5784
• Issue 1378
Death of a monster (or ‘moderate’ according to the )
Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran’s capital Tehran on Wednesday morning
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could be major step towards a “large-scale escalation” of Israel’s war against the terrorist group and its key ally Iran, Middle East experts warned last night, writes Michelle Rosenberg. Its political chief and one of Israel’s most wanted criminals was killed in a suspected IDF strike on his house in Tehran. The rocket attack took place at about 2am local time yesterday. Haniyeh was visiting Iran to take part in the inauguration of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Haniyeh, 62, was responsible for the planning of the 7 October murder,
torture and rape of at least 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251, more than 100 of whom are still captive in Gaza. On widely shared video footage he has been seen smiling with other Hamas leaders, watching events unfold from a hotel suite in Qatar, where he had been living in exile since 2019. The most senior Hamas official to be killed during the war, he had been Hamas’ political head since 2017. Prof Meir Litvak, director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Jewish News the assassination could be “a step toward ‘Eliminated’: Israel’s social media response large-scale escalation as Iran sees
the attack as a major and humiliating breach of its sovereignty. I don’t think Iran wants a full-scale war, so they will most likely opt for a retaliation that will be significant enough to punish Israel, but short of a full-scale war. “They could send another barrage of rockets, its size, the type of rockets and their precise targets may determine whether or not we will go to a much larger conflict. “We may see a large-scale coordinated attack of Iran’s proxies. Of course, both parties could slide to escalation without wishing it in advance.” Continued on pages 2-3