What consequences could the assassination of the Hamas leader lead to?

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas, designated as a terrorist by the US and the EU, was killed in Tehran as a result of an Israeli attack. This information was announced by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the morning of July 31.

Hamas confirmed this news on their Telegram channel on July 31. There has been no confirmation from Israel yet.

Hamas stated that Haniyeh was killed "as a result of an airstrike on his residence in Tehran after attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president (Masoud Pezeshkian)."

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and lived in exile in Qatar. The leader of Hamas in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who is considered the main organizer of the October 7 attack.

After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, Israel declared that it would eliminate Haniyeh and other group leaders.

On July 30, Israel announced that it had eliminated Fuad Shukr, a leader of the Hezbollah group. Israel claims he was behind the rocket attack that killed 12 Israeli children and teenagers over the past weekend. Shukr was killed in his apartment in Beirut.

Political commentator Zardusht Alizade comments on these events in the program "Complex Question."

According to him, contrary to the image created by Israel of a squanderer of billions intended for the Palestinian people, Ismail Haniyeh led a very modest, ascetic lifestyle and was a person of exceptional honesty and integrity. Naturally, all the negative information spread about him by Israeli propaganda is "black PR" and an element of information warfare.

The expert noted that Israel's occupation of lands belonging to the Palestinian people is a fact recognized by the whole world, and for this, Israel is condemned. Israel is demanded to free the occupied territories. However, Israel ignores the demands of the international community to free these illegally occupied lands and labels those Arabs who want to free these lands by force as terrorists.

In Alizade's opinion, because the control over most of the world's media is held by people of Jewish origin and by states with close political ties to Israel, the terrorist label has been successfully attached to Arabs.

"Accusations of Ismail Haniyeh in terrorism are absurd!" he stated.

The political analyst emphasized that Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran after the inauguration of the country's president indicates that Israeli intelligence feels at home in Tehran.

How will Iran respond to Israel?

"Practically with nothing," the expert believes.