¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he was attending the swearing-in of the new president.

‘Brother leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,’ the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzuk vowed the group would retaliate. ‘The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and will not go unanswered,’ he said.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened ‘harsh punishment’ for Haniyeh’s killing, saying, ‘We consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.’

Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian echoed him, saying, ‘The Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act.’ Israeli policies ‘have reached a dead end’, he added.

Israel declined to comment on the Tehran strike, which came after it struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut on Tuesday, targeting a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group.

The Gulf emirate of Qatar, which has been spearheading efforts with Egypt and the United States to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, said the killing of Haniyeh, Hamas’s lead negotiator, threw the whole process into doubt.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was hit and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

Iranian media said the 2:00 am (2230 GMT) strike targeted ‘the special residences for war veterans in north Tehran’ where Haniyeh was staying.

Iran government, following the news of the killing, declared three days of national mourning.

An ‘official and public’ funeral ceremony for Haniyeh will be held in Tehran on Thursday before his body is flown to Qatar, his base in recent years, for burial on Friday, Hamas said.

Hundreds of demonstrators waving Palestinian flags rallied Wednesday in Tehran’s Palestine Square, chanting ‘Death to Israel, Death to America!’, AFP correspondents said.

Concern grew among Israelis over the fate of the dozens of hostages still held captive 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.

The Tehran strike which killed Haniyeh came hours after Israel said it had killed senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a strike on the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that Shukr was inside the building hit by Israel but that his fate remained unknown.

The Israeli military said its Tuesday strike had ‘eliminated’ Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander it blamed for carrying out a weekend rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze Arab town.

Chairing a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned: ‘The strike on the southern suburbs is a strike on... efforts for calm.’