Iran, allies ready Israel response as funerals held for militant leaders

TEHRAN: Iran and its regional allies vowed retaliation on Thursday (Aug 1) for the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, raising regional tensions as mourners filled Tehran’s city centre calling for revenge.
Crowds, including women shrouded in black, carried posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags in a procession and ceremony that began at Tehran University, an AFP correspondent reported.
Senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami, attended the ceremony, state television images showed.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced the day before that Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn strike Wednesday on their accommodation in Tehran.
The New York Times however reported, citing anonymous sources including two Iranian officials, that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted several months ago.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said an air strike in Gaza last month killed Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif. The Palestinian group has not confirmed it.
Qatar-based Haniyeh had been visiting Tehran for Pezeshkian’s swearing-in on Tuesday.
Pezeshkian said Iran “will continue to support with firmer determination the axis of resistance”, the official IRNA news agency said.
Qatar-based network Al Jazeera reported said the plane carrying Haniyeh’s body had landed in Doha, where the Palestinian leader is to be buried following prayers at the Qatari capital’s largest mosque.
Hamas called in a statement for a day of protests on Friday.
“Let roaring anger marches start from every mosque,” it said.
The international community has called for calm and a focus on securing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip – which Haniyeh had accused Israel of obstructing.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said the strikes in Tehran and Beirut represented a “dangerous escalation”.
In a phone call, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt blamed Israel for rising tensions and called for “de-escalation”, Jordan’s official Petra news agency reported.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated appeals for an end to fighting. He said achieving peace “starts with a ceasefire” and called on “all parties” to “stop escalatory actions”.