Funeral prayer held for Martyr Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran

TEHRAN: The Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution on Thursday led a funeral prayer for the Political Bureau Chief of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated by the Zionist regime in Tehran.

According to Iran’s state news agency, the ceremony to bid farewell to Martyr Ismail Haniyeh started this morning (Thursday) at the University of Tehran.

The services began with an address from Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

“Martyr Ismail Haniyeh was the voice of the Palestinian people all over the world,” Ghalibaf said. “He was not only a leader. He was the wise man.”

Ghalibaf added that Haniyeh’s assassination, in Tehran, on Wednesday, would not go unanswered.

“Our reply will be there. At the right time and the right place. It is difficult for us to have our guest being targeted and assassinated on our soil,” he said.

Mourners holding portraits of Haniyeh gathered in and around the University of Tehran, where Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led the funeral prayers for the Hamas chief and one his bodyguards.

The office of the Supreme Leader had announced that the funeral prayer for Ismail Haniyeh would be held at the university premises before the mourners march toward the Azadi Square.  The Hamas chief would be buried in Doha tomorrow.

Iran’s supreme leader orders attack on Israel for Haniyeh killing, officials say

Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday. He was in the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has already announced three days of public mourning.

The Supreme Leader in a message following the martyrdom of the head of the political office of Hamas said: “The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself with this act, and we consider it our duty to avenge his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.