Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh to be buried in Qatar

Palestinian group calls for ‘day of furious rage’ to coincide with funeral of Haniyeh who was assassinated in Iran.

Funeral ceremonies for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh are to be held in Qatar after his assassination in Iran deepened fears of a widening regional conflict.

Haniyeh, the Palestinian armed group’s political chief, will be buried on Friday at a cemetery in Lusail, north of Doha, following funeral prayers at the Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab mosque.

Hamas has said that “Arab and Islamic leaders” as well as representatives of other Palestinian factions and members of the public would attend the events in the Qatari capital, where Haniyeh had lived along with representatives from the group’s political office.

Israel did not directly comment on the killing of Haniyeh and a bodyguard in a predawn attack on their accommodation in Tehran early on Wednesday, but has been accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack.

The Hamas leader’s assassination came just hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah. Israel has taken responsibility for this attack.

Hamas has called for a “day of furious rage” to coincide with the burial in Doha and encouraged “roaring anger marches … from every mosque” following Friday prayers to protest against Haniyeh’s killing as well as Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

Turkey and Pakistan have announced a day of mourning in honour of the Hamas leader.

Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political bureau with the blessing of the United States since 2012 following the group’s closure of its office in Damascus, Syria.

Haniyeh was playing a key role in talks for a potential ceasefire in Gaza and working with mediators Qatar in months-long negotiations alongside Egypt and the US.

US President Joe Biden said late on Thursday that Haniyeh’s killing had “not helped” the situation and that he was “very concerned” about rising tensions in the region.

The White House said Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone on Thursday, promising to defend Israel’s security “against all threats from Iran”.

Qatar’s prime minister said the killing had thrown the Gaza war mediation process into doubt. “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said on social media platform X.

The international community called for calm amid concerns that a concerted retaliation by Iran and its allies Hezbollah and Hamas could trigger an intense regional conflict.

“Israel is at a very high level of preparation for any scenario, both defensive and offensive,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Those who attack us, we will attack in return.”