The movement that rules the Gaza Strip said its top officials had begun broad consultations “to choose a new leader.”
Hamas announced that it has launched consultations to select a new leader of the Palestinian group following the assassination of its political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
“Following the martyrdom of our leader, the movement’s leadership has begun a broad consultation process within its hierarchy and consultative institutions to choose a new leader,” Hamas said in a statement posted on its social media accounts on Sunday.
The statement said that Haniyeh’s assassination “would only make Hamas and the Palestinian resistance stronger and more determined to continue their path and approach.”
The group said the results of the consultations will be announced as soon as they are completed.
Haniyeh was assassinated Wednesday morning in the Iranian capital Tehran in an attack that Iranian authorities blame on Israel. His bodyguard was also killed.
Iran and its affiliates in the Middle East have vowed to avenge Haniyeh’s killing. Israel, which Hamas, Iran and others blame for the attack, has not directly commented on the assassination.
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
After a funeral in Tehran, where prayers were led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday, Haniyeh’s remains were flown to Doha for burial.
The Hamas leader was based in the Qatari capital, where negotiations with Israel and other stakeholders, including Egypt and the United States, on a possible ceasefire in Gaza have taken place intermittently since the war began in October.
Fears of regional escalation
As Iran and its allies prepare their response to Haniyeh’s assassination, tensions are rising in the Middle East over fears of a regional war.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has announced it will deploy more warships and fighter jets to the region, while several Western governments, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have called on their citizens to immediately leave Lebanon, where Hamas-allied Hezbollah is based.
Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran comes just hours after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s military leader in Beirut, sparking promises of revenge from Iran and the “axis of resistance,” which are Middle Eastern armed groups backed by Iran.
Iran said Saturday it expected Hezbollah to strike deeper into Israel and no longer limit itself to military targets.
Asked by reporters on Saturday whether Iran would withdraw after the attack on Tehran, US President Joe Biden replied: “I hope so. I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said early Sunday that about 30 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon toward Israel, adding that most of them were shot down and no injuries were reported.
The rocket barrage was fired after Israeli airstrikes targeted several areas in southern Lebanon overnight, Lebanese media reported.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since the start of the Gaza war on October 7. The war has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians so far and displaced nearly the entire population of the besieged enclave amid widespread famine and health emergencies.
