We start to grasp how Ismail Haniyeh was killed. Early indications have been {that a} rocket hit the home the place he lived in Tehran, killing him and his bodyguard.
All eyes will inevitably be on Israel, which has vowed to seek out and punish all Hamas leaders after a brutal assault on October 7 that killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
Israel doesn’t sometimes touch upon its actions overseas, however the assault might observe the identical sample as Israel’s April 19 assault on Iranian air defenses across the Natanz nuclear facility.
Israeli jets are believed to have fired the rockets from outdoors Iranian airspace.
However as particulars of the assault slowly emerged, its political fallout additionally got here into focus.
Most clearly, fragile efforts to barter a ceasefire in Gaza may very well be undermined.
Ismail Haniyeh is probably not in command of day-to-day affairs in Gaza — that’s the purview of army commander Yahya Sinwar — however as Hamas chief in exile He’s a key interlocutor within the Qatar-brokered negotiations.
U.S. officers have stated not too long ago that ceasefire talks might quickly succeed, though conferences in Rome over the weekend didn’t yield a breakthrough.
However following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, it’s troublesome to see any fast progress being made.
All of which begs the query: If, as everybody believes, this was an Israeli motion, why was it completed?
What does Israel hope to attain aside from retaliating in opposition to anybody related to Hamas?
Türkiye’s international ministry has summarized the doubtless response of many within the area.
“It has as soon as once more been proven that the federal government of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has no intention of attaining peace,” it stated in a press release.
The timing suggests it’s a part of a wider Israeli marketing campaign to threaten retaliation for Hezbollah’s rocket assaults within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 Druze youngsters and younger folks, together with killings in Beirut final night time. a senior Hezbollah commander.
Israel has warned that its response can be harsh.
Officers right here usually level to Iran as a hyperlink within the so-called “arc of resistance” within the Center East, which incorporates Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the West Financial institution, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Within the wake of strikes in opposition to Hezbollah in Beirut (and extra not too long ago in opposition to the Houthis in Hodeidah), the chief of Iran-killing Hamas has despatched an emphatic, chilling message to the militant group and its Iranian backers: Israel can and can hunt you wherever you might be.
