The leaders of two different Iranian-backed groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, were killed in separate attacks within 24 hours of each other this week.
Hamas said its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an airstrike Wednesday in Tehran, where he had traveled to attend the inauguration of Iran’s president. On Tuesday, senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike in the outskirts of Beirut.
In response to the killing of Haniyeh, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a direct strike on Israel, the New York Times reported.
Hamas, the militant government Palestinians elected in Gaza, orchestrated an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed nearly 1,200 people and resulted in Israel’s military response that has killed more than 39,000, according to Palestinian health authorities. For decades, Hezbollah, a heavily armed militia group based in Lebanon, has launched rockets into Israel. Both groups are backed by Iran.
Now, fears of wider Middle East conflict are growing. The U.S. State Department released an advisory Wednesday warning Americans not to travel to Lebanon “due to rising tensions between [Hezbollah] and Israel.”
Here’s what we know about what has happened in the Middle East:
The apparent assassination of Hamas political leader
- Haniyeh was primarily living in Qatar, where he played a key part in the ongoing indirect Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations that have been brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S.
- Haniyeh was killed by a rocket strike in the early morning hours on Wednesday in an apparent assassination at his residence in Tehran after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the new Iranian president, according to Hamas.
- Haniyeh’s funeral will be held in Qatar. Hamas’s main consultative council will likely meet soon after the funeral to name a replacement, the Associated Press reported.
- Hamas and Iran quickly blamed Haniyeh’s death on Israel, which had previously vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack.
