Death of Hamas leader Haniyeh in Iran: Middle East on knife-edge

The Middle East is on edge after a dramatic escalation that saw top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in a strike in the Iranian capital of Tehran early Wednesday.

Iranian officials are blaming Israel for what they say is an assassination, but a spokesman for Israel’s government on Wednesday declined to comment on the death of Haniyeh, Reuters reported.

“Israel was very clear – Haniyeh was a dead man walking,” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, wrote in a post on X following the news. “Once out of Doha, it was game time. Coming hours after the killing of Fuad Shukr in Beirut, the Middle East is on an absolute knife-edge now.”

Just one day prior, Israeli forces declared that they killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in a strike on a densely-populated area of Beirut, in retaliation for a strike last week on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed several children. Israel blames Iranian-backed Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah for the attack, a charge Hezbollah has thus far denied.

Haniyeh served as the chief of Hamas’ politburo and was seen as a more relatively moderate figure within the organization — importantly, he led cease-fire negotiations with Israel and was the face of the group’s regional diplomatic efforts.

The alleged Israeli killing of Haniyeh marks a blow to Hamas and essentially torpedoes any near-term chances of a ceasefire between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the brutal war in Gaza that is now in its tenth month.

Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X: “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? Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life.”

Qatar’s government has long hosted Hamas’ political leadership. Haniyeh was made the head of Hamas’ political wing in 2017 before moving to Qatar in exile in 2019. After leaving Gaza he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, a much more hardline Hamas devotee. Sinwar is believed to be the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took a further 253 hostage, 116 of whom have since been freed.

Israel’s military response to the attack has killed more than 39,000 people in Gaza, health authorities in the blockaded enclave say, and destroyed more than half of all its buildings, according to the U.N.

While ceasefire talks have been ongoing for months with no success, the more extreme Sinwar…