The burial ceremony for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran on Wednesday, is beneath method in Qatar.
Funeral prayers for Haniyeh will happen on the Imam Muhammed bin Abdul Wahhab mosque – the most important in Qatar – earlier than he’s buried at a cemetery in Lusail, a metropolis north of Doha.
Distinguished figures within the Hamas motion – together with his predecessor as chief, Khaled Meshaal – stood on the tarmac at Doha airport because the airplane carrying Haniyeh’s coffin landed from Iran on Thursday afternoon.
Haniyeh was killed throughout a go to to Iran’s capital. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel, although Israel has not claimed accountability for his demise.
Hamas mentioned that “Arab and Islamic leaders” and people concerned with different Palestinian factions would attend, in addition to members of the general public.
Turkey and Pakistan introduced a day of mourning on Friday in honour of Haniyeh, whereas Hamas has known as for “roaring anger marches… from each mosque” to happen after Friday prayers to protest Haniyeh’s killing.
At a separate funeral ceremony for Haniyeh which happened in Tehran on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed that Israel would endure a “harsh punishment” for the killing.
Haniyeh had been based mostly in Doha since about 2019. The Hamas political workplace moved to the Qatari capital in 2012, following the closure of its earlier workplace in Damascus, Syria.
Haniyeh had performed a key function in oblique talks with Israel over a possible ceasefire deal for the battle in Gaza.
The heads of the CIA, Mossad and the intelligence providers of Egypt and Qatar had attended negotiations in Doha
Haniyeh’s burial caps per week of hovering tensions within the Center East, which escalated with the killing of 12 youngsters and youngsters in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel accused Hezbollah and vowed “extreme” retaliation, although Hezbollah denied it was concerned.
Days later, senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in a focused Israeli air strike in Beirut. 4 others, together with two youngsters, have been additionally killed.
Hours after that, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran, Hamas’s predominant backer. He was visiting to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel has not claimed accountability for the assassination, however Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned afterward that Israel delivered “crushing blows” to Iran’s proxy teams in latest days.
A senior Hamas official advised the BBC the killing happened in the identical constructing the place Haniyeh had stayed throughout earlier visits to Iran. Three Hamas leaders and quite a few guards have been with him in the identical constructing, they mentioned.
The circumstances round his demise stay unclear.
The killing of Haniyeh left the management of Hamas in “a state of shock”, high Hamas officers advised the BBC.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, advised a information convention {that a} missile hit Haniyeh “immediately”, citing witnesses who have been with him.
However a report within the New York Instances, which cites seven officers, says Haniyeh was killed by a bomb that had been smuggled two months in the past into the constructing the place he was staying.
The BBC has not been capable of confirm both of those claims.
