Yes….
For the second day in row Israel HAS shown that it CAN and WILL take out any Hamas or Hezbollah top figure it wants ANYPLACE on the planet if they are involved in harming its citizens….
We’ll see how Iran deals with this….
Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders, was assassinated in Iran, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas said on Wednesday, a severe blow to the Palestinian group that threatens to engulf the region in further conflict.
Both Iran and Hamas accused Israel of killing Mr. Haniyeh, who led the group’s political operations from exile in Qatar. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Iran, Hamas’s main backer, and it was not clear how the killing was carried out.
Hours before the assassination, Israel said it had struck Fuad Shukr, a senior member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia that is also backed by Iran and has been fighting a low-level war with Israel since October. The two strikes have suddenly shifted the calculus in the Middle East, after a month in which Israel and Hamas had appeared to edge closer to a cease-fire in Gaza. Such a deal was expected to lead to a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
Now, the focus is on how Hamas and Hezbollah will respond to the attacks on their leaders; how Iran will react to a strike on its territory; and whether either reaction leads to the outbreak of a wider regional war. An Israeli strike on Iranian commanders in Syria in April led Iran to fire hundreds of missiles at Israel. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Haniyeh’s assassination would prompt a “harsh punishment.”….
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Many world leaders and top diplomats condemned the assassination of the senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday, expressing concern that his death could lead to further violence in the Middle East. Some feared that the killing of a central figure in the talks to end the fighting in Gaza could undo the modest progress there.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, cast doubt on the prospects of future mediation efforts. Qatar has played a key role in brokering talks between Israel and Hamas.
“Political assassinations & continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?” Sheikh Mohammed, who has led Qatar’s mediation efforts, wrote on social media. “Peace needs serious partners.”….
Updates coming later in the day…..
Update….
In Pakistan, Morocco, Mauritania, Turkey, Tunis, Jordan, the West Bank and beyond, people around the world took to the streets on Wednesday, responding to the apparent assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran.
Mr. Haniyeh was killed in Tehran early Wednesday, where he had just attended the inauguration of the country’s new president. Although Iran and Hamas announced Mr. Haniyeh’s death, accusing Israel of the killing, they have given few details about what took place. Israel has neither officially acknowledged nor denied responsibility….
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Rally attendees on several continents carried images of Mr. Haniyeh and waved Palestinian flags as they marched. Mr. Haniyeh, who is reviled as a terrorist in Israel, and for whom the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor was seeking a warrant arguing reasonable grounds to believe that he had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, is being championed as a martyr for the Palestinian cause in some countries.
In Gaza, where civilians have endured nearly 10 months of fighting, destruction, disease and hunger because of a war that Hamas set off, Mr. Haniyeh’s death was met with mixed emotions, including apathy and anger about the Hamas leader, who lived in Qatar.
In Karachi, Pakistan, his supporters led a procession with a banner in English that read, “Down With U.S.A.” and “Down With Israel,” declaring their allegiance with Hamas and its fallen leader….
Only reason I can come up with for killing a lead Hamas negotiator is that Netanyahu wants to sabotage the cease-fire/hostage=release negotiations that both Israel and Hamas have been pretending to engage in seriously in order to please their patrons (e.g. the U.S. and Saudi Arabia).
Just like Netanyahu using the American neoconservative Right to torpedo the JCPOA on Iran’s nuclear bombs.
I can think of 1, 189 plus other reasons.
Yup DSD…….
That and i think Bibi and his crew are stuck
The average Israeli does not feel the conflict
My son was told by someone who visited the country
The other Middle East countries don’t like Iran either
But it is increasingly beginning to look like Trump is NOT gonna be the next US President and Harris may NOT be so supportive of Bibi…
Cutting the head of the snake off doesn’t work with a hydra
Remember also
Bibi IS currently under indictment for corruption……
Sound familiar?