All the latest developments on the conflict in the Middle East.
ADVERTISEMENTMourners gathered in the Qatari capital Doha on Friday to hold funeral prayers for slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as Iran and its regional allies vowed to retaliate against Israel.
With the bodies of Haniyeh and his bodyguard in coffins draped with Palestinian flags, men knelt and prayed while senior leaders of Hamas’ Qatar-based political office paid their respects to Haniyeh’s family.
That included two men seen as his possible successors: Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas senior official, and former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, a close Haniyeh aide. The head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad also attended.
Al-Hayya told family members that Haniyeh was “no better or dearer” than the children killed in Gaza. Some 39,480 Palestinians have been killed throughout the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
US push Israel to act on ceasefire
Following the incident, United States President Joe Biden says he’s “very concerned” that the violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Biden said he’d had a “very direct” conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. “We have the basis for a ceasefire. He should move on it and they should move on it now,” he said.
Netanyahu has said his country was determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas. He also said that Israel hoped for a ceasefire soon and was working for one.
Hezbollah chief: Fighting has entered ‘a new phase’
The leader of Hezbollah on Thursday warned that the conflict with Israel had entered a new phase following the killing of a senior commander in a rare Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital.
Nasrallah said the Lebanese militant group was now engaged in “an open battle on all fronts” following the killing of Fouad Shukur.
“We are facing a big battle now, it is beyond a support front now,” Nasrallah said.