Mourners bury Hamas leader as fears grow over Middle East escalation

A coffin is carried amid mourners in Doha, Qatar.

By Isabel DeBre and Julia Frankel

Aug. 2, 2024 Updated 1:39 PM PT

JERUSALEM — Thousands of mourners converged around the flag-draped coffin of Hamas’ slain political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in the emirate of Qatar on Friday as the fallout surged from his death in an alleged Israeli attack.

The funeral ceremony in Doha, Qatar’s capital, attended by members of Gaza’s militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, as well as Qatari and Iranian officials, was subdued. But across the Muslim world — from Jordan and Morocco to Yemen and Somalia — angry crowds waving Palestinian flags rushed out of mosques after midday Friday prayers, chanting for revenge.

“Let Friday be a day of rage to denounce the assassination,” said Izzat al Risheq, a senior Hamas official. Haniyeh had lived in Qatar, along with other senior members of Hamas’ political leadership.

Following the assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday and top Hezbollah commanderFuad Shukr, in Beirut the evening before, international diplomats have scrambled to head off a full-fledged regional war. Iran and its regional proxies vowed to retaliate. Major airlines canceled flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut.

Cyprus said Friday that it was preparing for possible mass evacuations of foreign citizens via the island nation, in case of a wider war. France beefed up security for Jewish communities nationwide. Poland warned its citizens against traveling to the Mideast. Pakistan and Turkey lowered their flags to half-staff, prompting Israel to summon Turkey’s deputy ambassador for a “stern reprimand.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli countered that Israel “cannot achieve peace by killing the negotiators” — a reference to Haniyeh’s role in the cease-fire talks — while hundreds of Turks gathered at the historic Hagia Sophia to pay tribute to the slain Hamas leader as his funeral got underway in Doha.

“We are sure that his blood will bring out victory, dignity and liberation,” senior Hamas official Khalil al Hayya, a possible successor to Haniyeh, said from the mosque where Haniyeh’s coffin was displayed beside that of his bodyguard who was also killed in Tehran.

Israel has not confirmed or denied a role in the targeted killing of Haniyeh. On Thursday, Israel announced that it killed the elusive leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike. Hamas had previously said Deif survived last month’s airstrike in the Gaza Strip, and has not commented on Israel’s more recent assertion.

The deadly pattern of Israeli airstrikes and skirmishes has continued in Gaza, with 15 Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack on a Gaza City school Thursday.

At least 39,480 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war. Palestinian health authorities providing the casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Tensions were also running high on Israel’s northern border days after Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr, the Hezbollah commander. On Friday, Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket and artillery attacks on Israel, causing a fire but no casualties in an evacuated Israeli town. Israel claimed its warplanes struck two Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon who it said had fired the volley of rockets.

The exchange was more of the same tit-for-tat that has flared along the Lebanese-Israeli border throughout the Israel-Hamas war. But Israelis and Lebanese were bracing for more after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday declared that Shukr’s assassination in the southern suburbs of Beirut had pushed the war into a “new phase.”

From contested Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the imam of Al Aqsa Mosque, mentioned “the martyr Ismail Haniyeh” in his weekly sermon to the thousands of Palestinian worshipers who had come to Friday prayers.

Sabri was promptly arrested. Israeli police said they were interrogating him on charges of incitement to violence.

“My policy towards instigators is clear — zero tolerance,” far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X.

Across the region, vows by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Israel would pay the price for killing Haniyeh on Iranian soil quickly led to calls for intense diplomacy to prevent further escalation.

Late Thursday, President Biden said he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize the chance for a cease-fire and “move on it now,” though adding that Haniyeh’s killing in Iran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

It’s still unclear how Haniyeh’s assassination will affect cease-fire talks.

Netanyahu’s office said he ordered Israeli negotiators to fly to Cairo on Saturday or Sunday. Officials from Hamas and Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, did not immediately comment on whether talks were resuming.

Netanyahu has sought to portray Israel’s recent targeting of Hamas leaders as victories that bring Israel closer to a deal that would free the roughly 110 remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas, whose distraught families rallied Thursday in Tel Aviv to mark 300 days of their captivity.

Tor Wennesland, the United Nations special coordinator for the Mideast peace process, said he was racing to work with Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt and other nations to “prevent a spillover of the conflict.”

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Israel on Friday “to push for an immediate cease-fire,” while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he spoke with his American counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.

“The unprecedented security cooperation between Israel and the United States against Iran and its proxies is critical,” Gallant said.

Though approvals are still pending, Austin is preparing to provide additional military support to Israel and boost protection for U.S. troops in the region, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Friday, against any threats from Iran and its regional proxies. That could involve deploying additional military units, she said, declining to provide details.

She said she’s not aware of any U.S. military units being ordered to prepare to deploy as yet.

In addition to combat aircraft, the U.S. has already moved several warships into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including two Navy destroyers, the USS Roosevelt and the USS Bulkeley, as well as the USS Wasp and the USS New York. The Wasp and the New York are part of the amphibious ready group and carry a Marine expeditionary unit that could be used if any evacuation of U.S. personnel is required.

A U.S. official also said that two U.S. Navy destroyers that are in the Middle East will be heading north up the Red Sea, toward the Mediterranean. At least one of those could linger in the Mediterranean if needed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

Associated Press writers Frankel reported from Jerusalem, DeBre from Buenos Aires. AP writer Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.