A funeral ceremony was held in Tehran today for the Palestinian Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in the capital of Iran in an attack blamed on Israel, with calls for revenge.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led a prayer for Haniyeh ahead of tomorrow's funeral in Qatar, having previously threatened "severe punishment" for his murder.
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In the center of Tehran, citizens held photos of Haniyeh and the Palestinian flag, and the ceremony was held at the University of Tehran.
Haniyeh's death was confirmed on Wednesday by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, saying he and his bodyguard were killed in an airstrike on the building where they were staying after attending the inauguration of Iran's new president.
A few hours earlier, in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, the high-ranking commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Fouad Shukr, was killed in a retaliatory Israeli attack, which raised fears of a wider regional conflict as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel refused to comment on the attack in Tehran, according to Israeli media.
Iran's state television showed the caskets containing the bodies of Haniyeh and his bodyguard during a ceremony attended by senior Iranian officials, including new President Massoud Pezeshkiyan and the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami.
Haniyeh was visiting Tehran on the occasion of Pezeshkian's inauguration on Tuesday.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya, in charge of the organization's external relations, vowed that Haniyeh's slogan "We will not recognize Israel" will remain "immortal" and that the fight against Israel will continue "until Israel is eradicated from the land of Palestine."
Speaker of Iran's Parliament, Muhammad Bager Ghalibaf, announced that Iran would "certainly carry out the Supreme Leader's order" to avenge Haniyeh.
"Our duty is to respond at the right time in the right place," he told the crowd who chanted: "Death to Israel, death to America!".
"It is our duty to seek revenge for his blood because he became a martyr on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Khamenei, who has the final say in Iranian politics, said earlier.
Iran has not yet officially released any information about the location of the attack, and the new president of Iran said on Wednesday that "the Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act."
The international community called for calm and focus on establishing a ceasefire in Gaza. Haniyeh has previously accused Israel of obstructing the deal, Hamas officials said.
Although Iran accused its main enemy - Israel of the attack in which Haniyeh was killed, that country did not comment on it.
Israel, however, claimed responsibility for the killing of the commander of Hezbollah, the organization it blamed for a rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.
The leader of Hamas and the commander of Hezbollah were killed at a time of already increased tension in the region due to the war in Gaza, in which pro-Iranian allies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen are also involved - Israeli media commented.
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