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Ayatollah Khamenei Prays For Hamas Leader

August 02, 2024 10:53 IST

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, led the prayers at assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's funeral in Tehran, on August 1, 2024, a rare honour for someone who is not Iranian.

On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Ayatollah Khamenei ordered an Iranian attack on Israel at a meeting of Iran's supreme leadership council convened after he was woken up in the middle of the night to be informed about Haniyeh's assassination.

The killing is a major embarrassment to Iran since Haniyeh was in Tehran as a State guest to attend the inauguration of Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

What was even more embarrassing is that the Hamas leader was killed in a guesthouse located in an Iranian Revolutionary Guards compound and that a bomb had been placed in the room where he usually stayed days or weeks earlier, according to the New York Times.

Israel has not claimed credit for the assassination -- Jerusalem usually stays mum about its campaigns of murder and disruption in the Islamic republic.

Haniyeh will be buried in Doha, Qatar, on Friday.

 

 

IMAGE: Mourners carry the coffin of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh during his funeral in Tehran, August 1, 2024, here and below. Photograph: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/Reuters

 

Photograph: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads the prayers at Haniyeh's funeral. Photograph: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Iranians hold posters of Ismail Haniyeh during his funeral procession. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Iranians gather for the funeral procession in Tehran, here and below. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Iraqi women attend absentee funeral prayers for Ismail Haniyeh in Baghdad, Iraq, July 31, 2024. Photograph: Ahmed Saad/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Iraqis attend absentee funeral prayers for Ismail Haniyeh in Baghdad, July 31, 2024. Photograph: Ahmed Saad/Reuters

 

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Mahipal Soni/Rediff.com

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