Calls for revenge at Iran funeral for Hamas chief Haniyeh

Update Calls for revenge at Iran funeral for Hamas chief Haniyeh
Iranians attend the funeral procession of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Aug. 1, 2024. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 01 August 2024
Follow

Calls for revenge at Iran funeral for Hamas chief Haniyeh

Calls for revenge at Iran funeral for Hamas chief Haniyeh
  • Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Hamas leader

TEHRAN: Iran held funeral processions on Thursday with calls for revenge after the killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike blamed on Israel.

The Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh ahead of his burial in Qatar, having earlier threatened a “harsh punishment” for his killing.

In Tehran’s city center, thousands of mourning crowds carrying posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags gathered for the ceremony at Tehran University before a procession, according to an AFP correspondent.

Haniyeh’s death was announced the day before by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who said he and his bodyguard were killed in a strike on their accommodation in the Iranian capital at 2:00 a.m. (2230 GMT) on Wednesday.

It came just hours after Israel targeted and killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a retaliatory strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut, sending fears of a wider regional war soaring in fallout from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Israel has declined to comment on the Tehran strike.

Iran’s state TV showed the coffins of Haniyeh and his bodyguards covered in Palestinian flags during the ceremony attended by senior Iranian officials.

President Masoud Pezeshkian and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief, General Hossein Salami, were present. Haniyeh had been visiting Tehran for Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.

Senior Hamas figure Khalil Al-Hayya, the movement’s foreign relations chief, vowed during the funeral ceremony that “Ismail Haniyeh’s slogan, ‘We will not recognize Israel,’ will remain an immortal slogan” and “we will pursue Israel until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine.”

Iran’s conservative parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran “will certainly carry out the supreme leader’s order (to avenge Haniyeh.)”

“It is our duty to respond at the right time and in the right place,” he said in a speech with crowds chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America!”

The caskets, with a black-and-white pattern resembling a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, were borne on a flower-bedecked truck through leafy streets where cooling water mists sprayed the flag-waving crowds.

Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran’s political affairs, said after Haniyeh’s death that it was “our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The Islamic republic has not yet officially published any information on the exact location of the strike.

Pezeshkian said Wednesday that “the Zionists (Israel) will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act.”

The international community, however, called for de-escalation and a focus on securing a ceasefire in Gaza — which Haniyeh had, according to a Hamas official previously, accused Israel of obstructing.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the strikes in Tehran and Beirut represented a “dangerous escalation.”

All efforts, he said, should be “leading to a ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which began nearly 10 months of war.

The prime minister of key ceasefire broker Qatar said Haniyeh’s killing had thrown the whole mediation process into doubt.

“How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said in a post on social media site X.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on “all parties” in the Middle East to “stop escalatory actions.”

Earlier he said a ceasefire in Gaza was still the “imperative,” though White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the twin killings of Haniyeh and Shukr “don’t help” regional tensions.

While Iran has blamed the attack on its arch-foe, Israel has declined to comment on Haniyeh’s death. It did, however, claim the killing of Shukr, whom it blamed for a weekend rocket strike that killed 12 youths in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The killings come with regional tensions already inflamed by the war in Gaza, a conflict that has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

One of those groups, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, “declared three days of mourning” for Haniyeh, with political leader Mahdi Al-Mashat expressing “condolences to the Palestinian people and Hamas” over his killing, according to the group’s Saba news agency.

The United Nations Security Council also convened an emergency meeting Wednesday at Iran’s request to discuss the strike.

Hamas has for months been indirectly negotiating a truce and hostage-prisoner exchange deal with Israel, in talks facilitated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

Analysts told AFP that Haniyeh was a moderating influence within the Islamist group, and that while he would be replaced, the dynamics within Hamas could change.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack that ignited war in Gaza.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Concern grew among Israelis over the fate of those still held in Gaza.

Haniyeh’s killing “was a mistake as it threatens the possibility of having a hostage deal,” said Anat Noy, a resident of the coastal city of Haifa.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,445 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.


Syrian Jews hope for revival of ancient heritage

Syrian Jews hope for revival of ancient heritage
Updated 25 sec ago
Follow

Syrian Jews hope for revival of ancient heritage

Syrian Jews hope for revival of ancient heritage
  • Syria’s millennia-old Jewish community was permitted to practice their faith under Assad’s father, Hafez, and had friendly relations with their fellow countrymen

DAMASCUS: Syria’s tiny Jewish community and Syrian Jews abroad are trying to build bridges after Bashar Assad’s ouster in the hope of reviving their ancient heritage before the community dies out.
This week, a small number of Jews living in Damascus, along with others from abroad, held a group prayer for the first time in more than three decades, in the Faranj synagogue in Damascus’s Old City.
“There were nine of us Jews (in Syria). Two died recently,” community leader Bakhour Chamntoub told AFP in his home in the Old City’s Jewish quarter.
“I’m the youngest. The rest are elderly people who stay in their homes,” the tailor in his sixties added in a thick Damascus accent.
After Islamist-led rebels finally toppled Assad in December last year after nearly 14 years of conflict, the country’s dwindling community has recently welcomed back several Syrian Jews who had emigrated.
Syria’s millennia-old Jewish community was permitted to practice their faith under Assad’s father, Hafez, and had friendly relations with their fellow countrymen.
But the strongman restricted their movement and prevented them from traveling abroad until 1992. After that, their numbers plummeted from around 5,000 to just a handful of individuals, headed by Chamntoub, who oversees their affairs.
AFP correspondents met with Chamntoub, known to neighbors and friends as “Eid,” after he returned from burying an elderly Jewish woman.
“Now there are seven of us,” he said, adding that a Palestinian neighbor had looked after the woman during her final days.

The 1967 Arab-Israeli war cast a heavy cloud over the Jewish communities in several Arab countries.
Syria lost most of the strategic Golan Heights to Israel, which later annexed them in a move never recognized by the international community as a whole.
Chamntoub said the community did not experience any “harassment” under Bashar Assad’s rule.
He said an official from the new Islamist-led administration had visited him and assured him the community and its properties would not be harmed.
Chamntoub expressed hope of expanding ties between the remaining Jews in Syria and the thousands living abroad to revive their shared heritage and restore places of worship and other properties.
On his Facebook page, he publishes news about the community — usually death notices — as well as images of the Jewish quarter and synagogues in Damascus.
He says nostalgic Syrian Jews abroad often make comments, recalling the district and its surroundings.
At the Faranj synagogue, Syrian-American Rabbi Yusuf Hamra, 77, led what he said was the first group prayer in decades.
“I was the last rabbi to leave Syria,” he said, adding that he had lived in the United States for more than 30 years.
“We love this country,” said Hamra, who arrived days earlier on his first visit since emigrating.
“The day I left Syria with my family, I felt I was a tree that had been uprooted,” he said.

His son Henry, traveling with him, said he was happy to be in the synagogue.
“This synagogue was the home for all Jews — it was the first stop for Jews abroad when they would visit Syria,” the 47-year-old said.
When war erupted in Syria in 2011 with Assad’s brutal suppression of anti-government protests, synagogues shuttered and the number of Jews visiting plummeted.
In the now devastated Damascus suburb of Jobar, a historic synagogue that once drew pilgrims from around the world was ransacked and looted, with a Torah scroll believed to be one of the world’s oldest among the items stolen.
Chamntoub said his joy at publicly worshipping in the Faranj synagogue again was “indescribable.”
He expressed hope that “Jews will return to their neighborhood and their people” in Syria, saying: “I need Jews with me in the neighborhood.”
Hamra said that like many emigrants, he was hesitant about returning permanently.
“My freedom is one thing, my family ties are another,” he said, noting that many in the 100,000-strong diaspora were long established in the West and reluctant to give up their lives and lifestyles there.
Chamntoub said many Jews had told him they regretted leaving Syria but that he doesn’t expect “a full return.”
“Maybe they will come for trips or to do business” but not to stay, he said.
He expressed hope of establishing a museum in Syria to commemorate its Jewish community.
“If they don’t return or get married and have children here, we will end soon,” he said.

 


Syria’s national dialogue conference is in flux amid pressure for a political transition

Syria’s national dialogue conference is in flux amid pressure for a political transition
Updated 23 min 6 sec ago
Follow

Syria’s national dialogue conference is in flux amid pressure for a political transition

Syria’s national dialogue conference is in flux amid pressure for a political transition
  • Al-Daghim said the decisions taken in the meeting of former rebel factions in January dealt with “security issues that concern the life of every citizen” and “these sensitive issues could not be postponed” to wait for an inclusive process

DAMASCUS, Syria: An official with the committee preparing a national dialogue conference in Syria to help chart the country’s future said Friday that it has not been decided whether the conference will take place before or after a new government is formed.
The date of the conference has not been set and the timing “is up for discussion by the citizens,” Hassan Al-Daghim, spokesperson for the committee, told The Associated Press in an interview in Damascus on Friday.
“If the transitional government is formed before the national dialogue conference, this is normal,” he said. On the other hand, he said, “the caretaker government may be extended until the end of the national dialogue.”
The conference will focus on drafting a constitution, the economy, transitional justice, institutional reform and how the authorities deal with Syrians, Al-Daghim said. The outcome of the national dialogue will be non-binding recommendations to the country’s new leaders.
“However, these recommendations are not only in the sense of advice and formalities,” Al-Daghim said. “They are recommendations that the president of the republic is waiting for in order to build on them.”
After former President Bashir Assad was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, the main former rebel group now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration comprising mainly of members of its “salvation government” that had ruled in northwestern Syria.
They said at the time that a new government would be formed through an inclusive process by March. In January, former HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa was named Syria’s interim president after a meeting of most of the country’s former rebel factions. The groups agreed to dissolve the country’s constitution, the former national army, security service and official political parties.
The armed groups present at the meetings also agreed to dissolve themselves and for their members to be absorbed into the new national army and security forces. Notably absent was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which holds sway in northeastern Syria.
There has been international pressure for Al-Sharaa to follow through on promises of an inclusive political transition. UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said this week that formation of a “new inclusive government” by March 1 could help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted as the country rebuilds.
Al-Daghim said the decisions taken in the meeting of former rebel factions in January dealt with “security issues that concern the life of every citizen” and “these sensitive issues could not be postponed” to wait for an inclusive process.
In recent weeks, the preparatory committee has been holding meetings in different parts of Syria to get input ahead of the main conference. Al-Daghim said that in those meetings, the committee had heard a broad consensus on the need for “transitional justice and unity of the country.”
“There was a great rejection of the issue of quotas, cantons, federalization or anything like this,” he said.
But he said there was “disagreement on the order of priorities.” In the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, for instance, many were concerned about the low salaries paid to government workers, while in Idlib and suburbs of Damascus that saw vast destruction during nearly 14 years of civil war, reconstruction was the priority.
The number of participants to be invited to the national conference has not yet been determined and may range from 400 to 1,000, Al-Daghim said, and could include religious leaders, academics, artists, politicians and members of civil society, including some of the millions of Syrians displaced outside the country.
The committee has said that the dialogue would include members of all of Syria’s communities but that people affiliated with Assad’s government and armed groups that refuse to dissolve and join the national army — chief among them the SDF — would not be invited.
Al-Daghim said Syria’s Kurds would be part of the conference even if the SDF is not.
“The Kurds are a component of the people and founders of the Syrian state,” he said. “They are Syrians wherever they are.”

 


Thousands of supporters of Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah fly into Beirut for his funeral

Thousands of supporters of Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah fly into Beirut for his funeral
Updated 37 min 52 sec ago
Follow

Thousands of supporters of Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah fly into Beirut for his funeral

Thousands of supporters of Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah fly into Beirut for his funeral
  • Crowds are expected to gather on Sunday at Beirut’s main sports stadium for a funeral ceremony before Nasrallah’s interment

BEIRUT: Nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, thousands of supporters of the longtime leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group have flown into Beirut for Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral on Sunday.
Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 when Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on Hezbollah’s main operations room in southern Beirut. It was the biggest and most consequential of Israel’s targeted killings in years.
The death of Nasrallah, one of the Iran-backed Shiite group’s founders and Hezbollah’s leader of more than 30 years, was a huge blow to the group he had transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.
Hezbollah, which the US and some of its allies has designated a terrorist organization, has suffered significant losses in the latest war with Israel, including the killing of several of its most senior military and political figures.
His cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later, will be laid to rest in his hometown in southern Lebanon. The two had temporarily been buried in secret locations. Hezbollah earlier this month announced plans for their official funerals.
Crowds are expected to gather on Sunday at Beirut’s main sports stadium for a funeral ceremony before Nasrallah’s interment.
Flights from Iraq, where Hezbollah has a huge following among Iraqi Shiites, have been full for days on end. According to an Iraqi transportation ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the flights, up to 6,000 people have flown to Beirut over the past days.
Among those who arrived from overseas was also American commentator Jackson Hinkle, who regularly spreads false information on social media, especially in support of Russia and its war on Ukraine.
“I am honored to be attending the funeral,” Hinkle posted on the social media platform X after arriving this week in Beirut.
Hinkle posted a photo of himself visiting a war-wrecked southern Lebanese border village, waving a Hezbollah flag.
Nasrallah, idolized by his supporters and with large followings among the Shiites and the Islamic world, also held the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to signify the Shiite cleric’s lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.
However, Lebanese authorities have revoked permission for a passenger plane from Iran, leaving dozens who had wanted to attend the funeral stranded in Tehran and triggering protests by Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon.
The ban came after the Israeli army accused Iran of smuggling cash to Hezbollah by way of civilian flights, leading some in Lebanon to allege that their government had caved in the face of a threat from Israel.
Some of those who were expected to fly in from Iran were now coming to Lebanon via Iraq. Also, members of Iran-backed groups in the region also were traveling to Beirut to attend Nasrallah’s funeral.
Kazim Al-Fartousi, spokesman for the Iran-backed Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada group in Iraq, arrived on Friday. He said Nasrallah was “the father, commander and the book that we read every day to learn about freedom.”
US Republican Rep. Joe Wilson criticized Lebanese politicians who were planning to attend the funeral.
“Any Lebanese politician who attends the funeral of the murderous terrorist Hasan Nasrallah is standing with the Iranian Regime,” Wilson said on X.
 

 


Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas

Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas
Updated 21 February 2025
Follow

Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas

Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas
  • PM: Lebanon is committed to restoring its position among Arab states
  • Security meetings held in preparation for funeral processions

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday emphasized the need for the US to exert pressure on Israel for a prompt and complete withdrawal from the territories it continues to occupy.

Salam made the remarks during his meeting at the Grand Serail with a delegation from the US Congress led by Rep. Darrell Issa.

“There is no military or security justification for Israel’s occupation of these points,” Salam said.

“This is a continued violation of the ceasefire arrangements, Resolution 1701, international law, and Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

FASTFACT

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam briefed members of the Arab diplomatic corps, led by Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, on the discussions he had with various Arab officials to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territories as soon as possible.

According to Salam’s office, the US delegation reaffirmed its support for Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

President Aoun received a phone call from US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz two days earlier.

Waltz assured Aoun that the US administration was keeping track of developments in southern Lebanon following Israel’s “incomplete withdrawal and its continued occupation of several border points.”

He commended the Lebanese army’s role in deploying to the positions vacated by the Israelis.

He highlighted the US commitment to Lebanon to solidify the ceasefire and resolve outstanding issues diplomatically.

Salam briefed members of the Arab diplomatic corps, led by Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, on the discussions he had with various Arab officials to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territories as soon as possible.

He emphasized “the importance of a unified Arab stance in facing common challenges, especially the plan to displace Palestinians.”

Salam informed the diplomatic delegation that the “ministerial statement prepared by his government, which is currently pending parliamentary approval, commits to restoring Lebanon’s standing among its Arab neighbors and ensuring that Lebanon does not serve as a platform for attacking Arab and friendly nations.”

Salam called on Arab communities to return to investing in and engaging in tourism in Lebanon in light of the new government and the favorable conditions it aims to create.

Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica held meetings with President Aoun and Salam.

The European Commission confirmed that it has allocated a €1 billion ($1.045 billion) package for Lebanon, with an additional €500 million to be provided.

However, this extra funding depends on specific conditions, including restructuring the banking sector and reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

A security meeting was held at the presidential palace two days before Hezbollah is set to hold the funeral for its former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hashem Safieddine.

Aoun presided at the meeting.

Defense Minister Michel Menassa, Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, Acting Army Commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Audi and senior officers from security agencies attended the talks.

Preparations are being made at Sports City, located at the southern entrance of Beirut, to accommodate mourners in the stadium and nearby areas.

Hezbollah expects attendees to exceed the stadium’s capacity of around 60,000 people.

Large posters of Nasrallah, Safieddine, and Lebanese flags were displayed on the outer walls.

The Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces will ensure safety in the surrounding areas and streets, while Hezbollah members will oversee the discipline and organization of the event.

During a security meeting at the Interior Ministry, the protocols and measures for maintaining order and ensuring the safety of attendees and citizens were reviewed.

The measures also aim to ensure the smooth flow of traffic, according to Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar Hussein Fadlallah, head of the funeral organizing committee.

He provided details about the logistical arrangements for the event at a press conference.

“We have secured 50 parking lots and set up giant screens along the roads to broadcast the funeral for those unable to attend in person,” Fadlallah said.

“Both the presidency and parliament of Lebanon will be participating in the funeral.”

 

 


UAE ramps up Gaza aid ahead of Ramadan

UAE ramps up Gaza aid ahead of Ramadan
Updated 21 February 2025
Follow

UAE ramps up Gaza aid ahead of Ramadan

UAE ramps up Gaza aid ahead of Ramadan
  • Airlift flies in 257 tonnes of aid from Fujairah on Friday
  • More than 70 trucks carrying aid from the Emirates reached Gaza this week

DUBAI: The UAE is stepping up its aid operation into Gaza ahead of Ramadan with cargo planes flying in hundreds of tonnes of food supplies on Friday.

The airlift comes after five convoys delivering a wide range of humanitarian aid from the UAE reached the Palestinian territory this week, state news agency WAM reported.

The convoys crossing from Egypt into Gaza amounted to 73 trucks carrying more than 1,185 tonnes of aid, including food, tents and other essential supplies.

Israel’s devastating 15-month war on the territory has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and displaced 90 percent of the population.

Since a ceasefire took effect last month, aid has surged into the territory.

On Friday, 257 tonnes of Ramadan food supplies were flown from the UAE, destined for Gaza as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3.

The supplies were flown from Fujairah as part of an effort between the Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Sharqi Foundation for Humanitarian Works and the Fujairah Charity Association, or FCA.

Saeed bin Mohammed Al-Raqbani, chairman of the FCA, said that the initiative aligned with the UAE’s leadership to “extend support to Palestinians and provide them with essential supplies.”

The UAE has delivered more than 37,300 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people as part of the operation.