Haniyeh’s residence targeted in Iran’s capital Tehran day after he attended inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President.  Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says we consider his revenge as our duty.  Burial to be held in Doha on Friday after funeral ceremony in Tehran n UN chief calls latest Israeli attacks in Middle East a dangerous escalation.  Netanyahu claims responsibility, vows to continue war.  US not aware of or involved in Hamas chief’s killing: Blinken.  Austin says US will help defend Israel if it’s attacked.

TEHRAN/UNITED NATIONS/ DOHA   -  Hamas said Wednesday its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was martyred in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

“Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the movement said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was martyred along with a bodyguard. “The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that because the attack took place in Tehran, “we consider his revenge as our duty”. Pezeshkian said his country would defend its territorial integrity and honour, and make the “terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly action”.

Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Ismail Haniyeh, was martyred by a missile strike in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday morning, only hours after Israel said it had martyred a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

The dual assassinations are heavy blows to Hamas and Hezbollah, but also raise the stakes for Iran, which backs both groups and vowed revenge. They will fuel growing fears that the war in Gaza could escalate into a broader regional conflict.

A senior Hamas official described Haniyeh’s killing as a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”. Mediators Qatar and Egypt warned it would set back talks on a ceasefire and a deal to release hostages held in Gaza. Haniyeh was targeted by an airstrike at a “residence in Tehran”, Hamas said, after he travelled to the Iranian capital for the inauguration of the country’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said attacks in Beirut and Tehran on Tuesday and Wednesday “represent a dangerous escalation” in the region.

He said, instead, this should be a “moment in which all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages, a massive increase of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and a return to calm in Lebanon and across the Blue Line.”

“Rather than that, what we are seeing are efforts to undermine these goals,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Blue Line is a demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.

“It is increasingly clear, however, that restraint alone is insufficient at this extremely sensitive time. The Secretary-General urges all to vigorously work towards regional de-escalation in the interest of long-term peace and stability for all,” the statement said.

The UN chief said that he international community needs to work together to use diplomacy to de-escalate and to try to prevent “any actions that could push the entire Middle East over the edge.”

Tehran has leveled blame against Washington for the killing of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, criticizing the US as a staunch ally of Israel. Iran’s foreign ministry pointedly condemned the White House “as a supporter and accomplice of the Zionist regime in the continuation of the occupation and genocide of the Palestinians, in committing this heinous act of terrorism.”

Iran has a right to respond to what it called an “aggressive action” against “sovereignty,” the ministry said on Telegram, calling on international actors that support the rights of the Palestinian people to condemn the assassination.

The burial of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is to be held in Doha on Friday a day after a public funeral ceremony in Tehran, the Palestinian group said Wednesday.

Haniyeh “will be given an official and public funeral ceremony in the Iranian capital, Tehran, tomorrow,” Hamas said in a statement, explaining his body would be transported to the Qatari capital later the same day.

It said funeral prayers will be held the at Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque, Doha’s largest mosque, after Friday prayers, with the burial carried out at a cemetery in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital.

Qatar on Wednesday condemned the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, describing it as a “heinous crime”, the Gulf state’s foreign ministry said.

Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s political leadership that included Haniyeh, said the killing was a “dangerous escalation”, adding that it was “a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law”.

Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, has been involved in months of back-and-forth talks to mediate an end to the war in Gaza, with the gas-rich emirate acting as a key interlocutor with Hamas.

The foreign ministry said “this assassination and the reckless Israeli behaviour of continuously targeting civilians in Gaza will lead to the region slipping into chaos and undermine the chances of peace”.

“The ministry reiterates the State of Qatar’s firm position rejecting violence, terrorism and criminal acts, including political assassinations, regardless of the motives and reasons,” it added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation Wednesday after the deaths of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and senior Hezbollah commander Fu’ad Shukr.

Israel has delivered “crushing blows” to its enemies in the last few days, he said in a televised statement.

“Three weeks ago, we attacked the military chief of Hamas, Mohammad Deif. Two weeks ago we attacked the Houthis, in one of the farthest attacks the Air Force has carried out. Yesterday we attacked the military chief of Hezbollah, Fu’ad Shukr,” the prime minister said.

“We’ll settle the score with anyone who harms us, anyone who massacres our children, anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who hurts our nation, blood is on his head,” he also said.  He noted his determination to keep the fight going until the aims of the war are achieved, saying that he has not given in before and he is “not giving in today.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains,” Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” he said of the killing.

Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire was also essential to prevent the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city-state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the killing of Haniyeh was a “cowardly act” and urged Palestinians to remain united against Israel.

“President Mahmoud Abbas of the State of Palestine strongly condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, deeming it a cowardly act and a serious escalation,” Abbas’s office said in a statement. “He urged our people and their forces to unite, remain patient, and stand firm against the Israeli occupation.”

Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV cited senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying the slaying was “a cowardly act that will not go unpunished.”

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated his “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security on Wednesday and said Washington would come to its defense if needed, hours after Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran early Wednesday, in a targeted assassination attributed to Israel.

Asked what assistance the US would provide if a wider conflict should break out in the Middle East as a result of Haniyeh’s death and the previous night’s killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Austin said Washington would continue to defend Israel if it were attacked, but that the priority was de-escalating tensions.

“We certainly will help defend Israel. You saw us do that April [when the US led a coalition of forces that, together with Israel, almost completely thwarted an Iranian attack on Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles]. You can expect to see us do that again,” he said, referring to the attack Iran launched against Israel in response to the bombing of Revolutionary Guards commanders in a building in its Syrian consulate.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday condemned the assassination of the chief of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, expressing serious concern over the growing Israeli adventurism in the region.

“We are deeply shocked by the timing of this reckless act, coinciding with the inauguration of the President of Iran, an event attended by several foreign dignitaries, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan,” according to a Foreign Office press release.

Extending condolences to his family and the people of Palestine, the Foreign Office spokesperson reiterated that Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings, irrespective of the motives.

“Pakistan views with serious concern the growing Israeli adventurism in the region. Its latest acts constitute a dangerous escalation in an already volatile region and undermine efforts for peace,” the spokesperson added.