Iran held a funeral ceremony with calls for revenge after the killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike blamed on Israel. (Qassem al-KAABI / AFP)
- South Africa has condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and called for a thorough investigation.
- The country has also urged all parties to exercise restraint.
- Extrajudicial killings violate international law and undermine peace, the South African government said.
Pretoria has condemned Wednesday’s assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and called for a thorough investigation into the incident, which came hours after Hezbollah commander Fuad Shakur was killed in Beirut, Lebanon.
Haniyeh was in Iran this week for the inauguration of new President Masoud Pezeshkian, and was killed in what Iran and others said was a missile strike.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said it was concerned that Haniyeh’s killing would inflame the already tense situation in the Middle East.
“South Africa urges that a thorough investigation be conducted and calls on all parties to exercise the utmost restraint to avoid any acts that would escalate tensions in the particularly fragile region,” Dirco said in a statement on Thursday.
Israel claimed responsibility for Shakur’s killing, saying he was the target of an “intelligence-based elimination”, and bore responsibility for a rocket attack that killed 12 people, mostly children, in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.
Despite not claiming responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing, the Israeli government’s press office posted an image to social media with the word “eliminated” stamped across his forehead hours after the attack
FOLLOW DEVELOPMENTS LIVE | Israel army says Hamas military chief Deif killed in earlier Gaza strike
Iran and Hamas vowed revenge
During Haniyeh’s funeral in the Iranian capital on Thursday, thousands of mourners dressed in black chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” at Tehran University, where the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers.
According to Reuters, the late Hamas leader’s body will be flown to Qatar – where he was usually based – for burial on Friday.
South Africa did not attribute Haniyeh’s death to Israel, but said the assassination occurred in the “context of the nine-month onslaught in Gaza, where the ongoing bombardment of Gaza by Israel has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, almost half of which are children, and created an unspeakable manmade humanitarian catastrophe”.
Dirco said Haniyeh was an integral member of the negotiating team working to secure a Gaza ceasefire and bring the Israel-Hamas war to an end.
In response to the assassination, Dirco Minister Ronald Lamola, said: “Such acts of extrajudicial killings violate international law and the principles of human rights, undermining global efforts to promote peace and stability in the Middle East.
“No country is above the law and all nations must respect international law, particularly the principles outlined in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“Any form of extrajudicial killing is a blatant violation of these principles, and extrajudicial killings of this nature have a destabilising effect. It is crucial that the perpetrators of such actions must be brought to justice.”
On Thursday, the Israeli military claimed it had killed another Hamas leader – Mohammed Deif, the head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing – in a Khan Yunis airstrike last month.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] announces that on 13 July 2024, IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis and, following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” a military statement said.
“Deif initiated, planned and executed the 7 October [2023] massacre.”
At the time, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said the 13 July strike killed more than 90 people, but denied that Deif was among the dead.
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