Doha, Qatar – Thousands of people attended the funeral prayer for late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Doha’s Grand Mosque on Friday, amid tight security.
Several Palestinian factions, diaspora groups, diplomatic dignitaries and nationals of many countries attended Haniyeh’s funeral prayer. He was buried at the Royal Cemetery in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, on Friday afternoon.
Symbolic funeral prayers for Haniyeh were held in several Muslim countries, including Yemen, Jordan and Turkey.
Streams of mourners began arriving at the Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque around 9 a.m., more than two hours before Friday prayers, to bid farewell to the Hamas political leader who was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Men and women, many wearing keffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian headscarves, and waving Palestinian flags, came to attend the funeral prayers despite Doha’s scorching heat, which hovered around 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
His body was brought back to Doha on Thursday after a memorial service in Tehran attended by thousands of people and where funeral prayers were led by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranians waved Palestinian flags and held pictures of the 62-year-old Hamas leader during the funeral procession.
Haniyeh, who was Hamas’ diplomatic spokesman based in Qatar, was assassinated in his home in Tehran. He was in the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the assassination. Fuad Shukr, a senior member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, was also killed by Israel hours before Haniyeh’s assassination.
Tributes
Hassan Abu Dhr, who lost his leg and hand in an Israeli bombing of the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza in November, came to the funeral prayer to pay tribute to Haniyeh.
“We are in mourning. We are very sad because of his assassination. He was like our father,” the 24-year-old, who was evacuated to Qatar for medical treatment, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Ismail Haniyeh was the pride of Gaza. We trusted him, he was the best leader for Gaza.”
Syed Ziaullah, a Pakistani national, also attended the funeral prayers.
“I came here for him, it is a relationship of brotherhood between Muslims,” Ziaullah told Tel Aviv Tribune. “He is a martyr and a patriot who fought to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation.”
Other participants came from various countries, including Sudan, India and Bangladesh.
Many of those interviewed by Tel Aviv Tribune expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, who have been under Israeli bombardment for the past ten months. Large swathes of the Gaza Strip have been razed and nearly 40,000 people have been killed since October 7, when Israel launched its military offensive following a Hamas attack on its territory. At least 1,100 people were killed in the attack in southern Israel.
“I am here to support Palestine and to support our people who have been facing genocide for 300 days. I am here because I am sad about the death of Ismail Haniyeh and the death of Ismail al-Ghoul (of Tel Aviv Tribune) and his colleague Rami al-Rifi,” Sara Abdelshafy, 32, told Tel Aviv Tribune. Tel Aviv Tribune Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza on Wednesday.
‘Down to earth’
Haniyeh was a prominent figure and was seen as approachable and approachable by many Gazans.
Haniyeh’s popularity comes in part from the fact that he embodies the typical Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, said Fathi Nimer, a Palestinian politics researcher at Al-Shabaka, a think tank based in the occupied West Bank.
“He was a refugee born in Shati refugee camp… most Palestinians are refugees, especially those from Gaza. His family was ethnically cleansed in Asqalan (Ashkelon, in present-day Israel). What made him very relatable to the people was that he went to the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) school and worked to support his family,” Nimer told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“People say he was a very humble and down-to-earth person,” he added.
Haniyeh joined Hamas as a student and rose through the ranks to become the only democratically elected Palestinian prime minister in 2006, at the age of 44.
Although he has lived outside Gaza since 2019, he has not been spared the ravages of the Israeli war. Some 60 members of his family have been killed, including three of his sons in April, as well as his grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
“With the blood of the martyrs and the pain of the wounded, we create hope, we create the future, we create independence and freedom for our people and our nation,” he said in April.
Haniyeh was one of the main negotiators in efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Haniyeh was described as a moderate and a pragmatist – someone who could plan for the long term and someone who could negotiate and deal with the nuances of negotiations,” Nimer said.
Haniyeh’s assassination, he added, “will undoubtedly have negative consequences on the (ceasefire) negotiations.”
Israel has assassinated numerous leaders of Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinian groups in the past. Haniyeh himself escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in 2003, along with his mentor, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, Hamas’ spiritual leader and founder.
Nimer said the recent killings could backfire on Israel. “Every time someone is killed, instead of killing their memory, they are made a martyr, a hero for everyone,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
With additional reporting by Virginia Pietromarchi
