UK foreign and defence ministers in Qatar to push for end to Gaza war
The UK’s foreign minister, David Lammy, and defence minister, John Healey, have travelled to Qatar to help drive efforts to end the conflict in Gaza and call for de-escalation in the wider region, the UK government said on Wednesday.
“It is absolutely vital that we engage closely with partners like Qatar, who play a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza, so that we can bring this devastating war to an end,” Lammy said in a statement, reports Reuters.
The UK and Qatar share a commitment to regional stability, security, defence and driving growth.
Qatar plays a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza, so it’s absolutely vital we work together to push for peace.
I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with HH… pic.twitter.com/fenks5IOSY
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 31, 2024Share
Updated at 10.04 EDT
Key events
36m ago
What we know so far
2h ago
Al Jazeera say two of its journalists have been killed in Gaza
2h ago
UK advises against all travel to Lebanon
2h ago
‘Now is the time to leave’: Australian foreign minister urges Australians to leave Lebanon
3h ago
UK foreign and defence ministers in Qatar to push for end to Gaza war
4h ago
Israel ‘not commenting’ on death of Haniyeh
5h ago
International reaction to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh’s killing
6h ago
US secretary of state stresses importance of ceasefire in Gaza after Hamas leader killing – video
7h ago
Egypt says Israeli escalation indicates no political will for de-escalation
7h ago
Funeral of Ismail Haniyeh to be held in Tehran and burial to take place in Doha
7h ago
Iran has no intention of escalating Middle East conflict, first VP says – state media report
7h ago
Footage shows Haniyeh’s last meeting with Iran’s supreme leader
7h ago
Qatar PM says killing of Haniyeh could jeopardise Gaza ceasefire talks
8h ago
What we know so far
8h ago
Iran’s Khamenei says avenging Haniyeh’s killing is ‘Tehran’s duty’
8h ago
Qatar warns of ‘chaos’ while Turkey say Haniyeah attack ‘aims to spread’ Gaza war to ‘a regional dimension’
9h ago
Lebanon expects Hezbollah to retaliate for Israeli strike on Beirut, minister says
9h ago
Iran will ‘defend it’s territorial integrity’ after Haniyeh assassination in Tehran, president says
11h ago
Haniyeh assassination took place at about 2am, Iran state media reports
11h ago
Who was Ismail Haniyeh?
11h ago
Israeli military extends detention of soldiers accused of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainee
11h ago
Top Hezbollah commander was in building at time of Israeli strike, group says
11h ago
Israel has ‘no intention of achieving peace’, Turkey says
11h ago
Summary
12h ago
Israeli military ‘conducting situation assessment’, military says
12h ago
Iran’s supreme national security council has convened – report
12h ago
Abbas condemns Haniyeh killing, Palestinian factions call for general strike
13h ago
Haniyeh’s assassination a grave escalation, Hamas official says
13h ago
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran, group says
13h ago
Opening summary
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We reported earlier that Al Jazeera said two of its journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip. The news channel has released more details:
Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Refee were killed in al-Shati camp in northern Gaza while reporting from near the house of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated earlier today, Al Jazeera said.
Al-Ghoul and al-Refee were wearing their “press” vests and their car was clearly marked as a press vehicle, it said.
Al Jazeera said they were on their way to al-Ahli Baptist hospital after being asked to leave the area by Israel forces, when they were attacked from the air.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “dismayed” by the news of the deaths, adding in a statement that:
Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted. Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike.
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Iran is asking the UN security council to convene an emergency meeting to address “Israeli aggression and terrorist attacks” after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh.
The Iranian UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, in a letter, blamed Israel for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran and the targeting of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut.
The strikes “suggest an intention to escalate conflict and expand the war through the entire region,” he wrote, and called on the international community for “decisive action to address these violations and hold the perpetrators accountable.”
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What we know so far
I will shortly be handing over to my colleagues in the US, but first here is a summary of the latest developments (there is also a roundup of the international reaction to Ismail Haniyeh’s death here):
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed, according to Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Israel has yet to make any comment on Haniyeh’s killing but in its statement, Hamas accused Israel of the attack. Associated Press reports that analysts on Iranian state television have also begun blaming Israel for the attack.
A funeral for Haniyeh will be held in Tehran on Thursday and then his body will be transferred to Qatar’s capital Doha for prayers and burial, Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday. Iran’s state media has announced that there will be three days of national mourning in the country for Haniyeh.
The Hamas statement said the group mourned Haniyeh “who died as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president”.
Hamas’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said that Hamas and Iran do not want a regional war, but there is a crime that should be punished. The comment came from a press conference in Tehran after the killing of the Palestinian militant group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh.
An Israeli government spokesperson has said that Israel is not commenting on the death of Haniyeh. “We are not commenting on that particular incident,” spokesperson David Mencer told a briefing with journalists on Wednesday.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. They spoke “about Israel’s response to Lebanese Hezbollah’s 27 July attack on Israel, which killed twelve innocent civilians, mostly children. They discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” she said. She added: “Secretary Austin reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and right to self-defence.”
Avenging Haniyeh’s assassination is “Tehran’s duty” because it occurred in the Iranian capital, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said. Khamenei said Israel had provided the grounds for “harsh punishment” for itself. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said the country will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act”.
The assassination was reported on Iranian state TV early on Wednesday morning. In a statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said “The cause and dimensions of this incident are being investigated and the results will be announced later.” Iranian state media have reported that the assassination of Haniyeh took place at around 2am while he was staying at a residence for war veterans. So far little detail as come out about the exact circumstances of the killing.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Haniyeh had been targeted in his residence along with an Iranian bodyguard. It said he had been in Iran to attend the inauguration of president Masoud Pezeshkian and that the circumstances of the “incident” was being investigated.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Haniyeh’s death was a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, according to the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV. Another Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has told Reuters that the killing is a grave escalation that will not achieve its goals.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday the US was not involved in or made aware of the assassination of Haniyeh. “This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It’s very hard to speculate,” Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia during a visit to Singapore.
Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah issued its condolences on Wednesday after Haniyeh’s death. Hezbollah did not specifically accuse Israel but said it would make Iran-aligned groups more determined to confront Israel.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee called Haniyeh’s killing a “heinous terrorist crime”, according to Reutersand “a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has strongly condemned the killing, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported. Palestinian national and Islamic factions have also called for a general strike and mass demonstrations in response to the assassination.
Qatar’s foreign ministry called the killing a “heinous crime” and “shameful assassination”. Turkey echoed the condemnation. “We condemn the assassination of the leader of Hamas’s political office, Ismail Haniyeh, in a shameful assassination in Tehran,” the foreign ministry said, adding that “this attack also aims to spread the Gaza war to a regional dimension”.
Egypt said that Israeli escalation indicated a lack of political will from Israel for de-escalation, after the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran. A statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry said this escalation, along with making no progress in Gaza ceasefire talks, was complicating the situation.
The EU had not made a formal statement on the latest developments in the Middle East, but external affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said in response to a question that “we are following closely reports about the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran last night.” Stano called “on all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation”. He added: “No country and no nation stand to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”
Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the assassination of Haniyeh, calling him a “valiant advocate for his people”.
The Chinese foreign ministry said that the incident could lead to further regional instability.
Although Israel has not formally commented, several Israeli ministers have reacted to Haniyeh’s assassination. The heritage minister, Amichay Eliyahu, celebrated his killing, writing on X: “Haniyeh’s death makes the world a little better” and that this is the “right way to clean the world from this filth”. Shlomo Karhi, minister of communications, wrote on X: “Yes, all your enemies will perish, O God”, although the post appeared later to have been deleted. Amichai Chikli, minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, posted a video of the Hamas leader on X with the caption, “Careful What You Wish For”.
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders welcomed the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. “Good Riddance!!” the leader of the Party for Freedom wrote on social media, adding a warning for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah.
Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel claimed it killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukur, in an airstrike on a south Beirut suburb launched in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend.
Referring specifically to war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Israel is not seeking to escalate, but that it is prepared to handle all scenarios. Gallant’s comments were made during a visit to a missile defence battery were reported by Israeli media outlets and confirmed by his spokesperson.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has held a press conference in the Philippines. He has so far said the US would defend Israel if it was attacked and that he did not think a wider war in the Middle East was inevitable.
Al Jazeera are reporting that two of its journalists have been killed in an attack on the Gaza Strip. The Qatar-based broadcaster has named them as Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifee. It has not shared any further information.
The UK’s foreign minister, David Lammy, and defence minister, John Healey, have travelled to Qatar to help drive efforts to end the conflict in Gaza and call for de-escalation in the wider region, the UK government said on Wednesday.
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has warned about the risk of escalation in the Middle East and urged Australians to leave Lebanon. In a video message, Wong said: “Now is not the time for Australians in the region to wait and see what happens. Now is the time to leave.”
Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, spoke by phone to US secretary of state Antony Blinken and discussed continuing work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has advised against all travel to Lebanon. In a social media post on Wednesday, the FCDO also advised any British nationals in Lebanon to register their presence on Gov.uk.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will visit Turkey on 14-15 August, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday. Abbas will meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 14 August and address parliament on 15 August.
ShareLili Bayer
The EU had not made a formal statement on the latest developments in the Middle East, but external affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said in response to a question that “we are following closely reports about the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran last night.”
“The EU has a principled position of rejecting extrajudicial killings and of supporting the rule of law, including in international criminal justice,” Stano said, adding:
We recall that the EU and other partners have listed Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and that the ICC prosecutor was seeking an arrest warrant against Ismail Haniyeh on various charges of war crimes.
We call on all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation. No country and no nation stand to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”
ShareRebecca Ratcliffe
Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, calling him a “valiant advocate for his people”.
In a statement on social media, Anwar said:
This was a murder of the most heinous kind, plainly designed to derail ongoing talks aimed at ending the carnage in Gaza that has claimed over 40,000 lives. It is patently clear that this could only have been carried out in an environment of utter impunity.
Only the heedless and unconscionable will not see the need to intensify pressure on Israel to stop their murderous rampage.
I am deeply concerned about what this tragedy would mean for the Palestinian people, who have already been so cruelly subjected to so much pain, hardship and suffering for so many decades.
Detractors who have criticised me for meeting with Ismail Haniyeh in the past, fail to appreciate Haniyeh’s profound desire for a peaceful Middle East and a Palestinian nation restored to its rightful dignity.”
After the 7 October attacks, Anwar criticised what he described as a “pressuring attitude” by western countries calling for the group to be condemned. Hamas leaders have often visited Malaysia in the past, and Anwar met with Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar in May. Malaysia does not recognise Israel diplomatically.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, has long been a strong advocate for the Palestinian cause. Many Malaysians have also taken part in boycott campaigns targeting brands they accuse of being sympathetic to Israel.
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Updated at 11.50 EDT
Patrick Wintour
Avenging the assassination of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, is now Tehran’s duty as his killing occurred while he was a “dear guest” on Iranian soil, the country’s supreme leader has warned in his first reaction to the killing.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described Haniyeh’s killing, which Tehran views as a provocation designed to escalate the conflict in the Middle East, as a “bitter and difficult incident that happened in the territory of the Islamic republic”.
The episode has plunged Masoud Pezeshkhian, the newly inaugurated Iranian president, into a major crisis in his first days in office as he faces internal demands to respond to what amounts to a humiliating targeting of an ally while visiting Tehran to attend his own inauguration – even as he seeks better ties with the west. Pezeshkhian vowed his country would “defend its territory” and make the attackers regret their cowardly action.
Mohammad Reza Aref, the newly appointed vice-president, said the west was complicit in this manifestation of “state terrorism” through its silence at the actions of Israel, whom Tehran and Hamas have blamed for the assassination.
He said: “This desperate act was based on sinister goals, including creating a new crisis at the regional level and challenging the regional and international relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran at this point in time, especially at the beginning of the ‘government of national unity’.”
The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said: “This crime of the Zionist regime will face a harsh and painful response from the powerful and huge resistance front.”
The choice of Tehran, as opposed to Qatar, where Haniyeh mainly resides, or Turkey which he regularly visited, is likely to be about more than just opportunity. It is also a chance to show to a global audience that the IRGC cannot defend its most prized political assets even in its own capital.
You can read Patrick Wintour’s full analysis piece here:
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Al Jazeera say two of its journalists have been killed in Gaza
Al Jazeera are reporting that two of its journalists have been killed in an attack on the Gaza Strip. The Qatar-based broadcaster has named them as Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifee. It has not shared any further information.
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Updated at 11.03 EDT
Reuters reports that Hamas’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said that Hamas and Iran do not want a regional war, but there is a crime that should be punished.
According to the news agency, the comment came from a press conference in Tehran after the killing of the Palestinian militant group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh.
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Updated at 10.44 EDT
UK advises against all travel to Lebanon
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has advised against all travel to Lebanon. In a social media post on Wednesday, the FCDO also advised any British nationals in Lebanon to register their presence on Gov.uk.
🚨 TRAVEL UPDATE: if you are a British national in Lebanon, you should register your presence to receive the latest information➡️ https://t.co/yMKMv2ULRn
📞 British nationals in Lebanon who need help should contact +961 (0)1 960 800.
⚠The FCDO advises against all travel to… pic.twitter.com/EMYBGWxEfw
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) July 31, 2024
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‘Now is the time to leave’: Australian foreign minister urges Australians to leave Lebanon
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has warned about the risk of escalation in the Middle East and urged Australians to leave Lebanon.
In a video message, Wong said:
My message to Australian citizens and residents in Lebanon is: now is the time to leave. If you are in Australia and thinking of travelling to Lebanon, do not.
There is a real risk that the conflict in the region escalates seriously. The security situation could deteriorate quickly, with little or no notice. Some commercial flights are still operating.
If you can leave, you should. Beirut airport could close completely if the situation worsens. And if that happens, the government may not be able to help Australians still in Lebanon to evacuate. You may not be able to leave Lebanon for an extended period.
I know, Australians, in particular the Lebanese Australian community, are worried. We share your concerns.
We are working with partners in the region to push for restraint and de-escalation. But now is not the time for Australians in the region to wait and see what happens. Now is the time to leave.”
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Updated at 10.21 EDT
UK foreign and defence ministers in Qatar to push for end to Gaza war
The UK’s foreign minister, David Lammy, and defence minister, John Healey, have travelled to Qatar to help drive efforts to end the conflict in Gaza and call for de-escalation in the wider region, the UK government said on Wednesday.
“It is absolutely vital that we engage closely with partners like Qatar, who play a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza, so that we can bring this devastating war to an end,” Lammy said in a statement, reports Reuters.
The UK and Qatar share a commitment to regional stability, security, defence and driving growth.
Qatar plays a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza, so it’s absolutely vital we work together to push for peace.
I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with HH… pic.twitter.com/fenks5IOSY
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 31, 2024Share
Updated at 10.04 EDT
