As mourners flocked Tehran’s city center on Thursday, demanding retribution, Iran and its regional allies pledged retaliation for the killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, escalating tensions around the region.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of Hamas, had a public funeral in the Iranian capital after he was slain early on Wednesday in an attack on which Israel has not commented.
After his group called for a “day of furious rage” throughout the Palestinian territories and around the region, Haniyeh’s remains was flown to Qatar, where he had lived and would be laid to rest on Friday.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, addressing the funeral of the Lebanese group’s top military commander, said Israel and “those who are behind it must await our inevitable response” to Fuad Shukr’s and Haniyeh’s killings within hours of each other.
“You do not know what red lines you crossed,” Nasrallah said, addressing Israel, a day after Shukr was killed in a strike in south Beirut.
Israel, which said Shukr’s assassination was a response to deadly rocket fire last week on the annexed Golan Heights, warned its adversaries on Thursday they would “pay a very high price” for any “aggression”.
“Israel is at a very high level of preparation for any scenario, both defensive and offensive,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Those who attack us, we will attack in return.”
According to a source close to Hezbollah, Iranian authorities met with representatives of the informal coalition of anti-Israel groups sponsored by Tehran, known as the “axis of resistance,” on Wednesday in Tehran to deliberate the groups’ next course of action.
“Two scenarios were discussed: a simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party,” said the source who had been briefed on the meeting, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels vowed a “military response” to Israel’s “major escalation”.
Analysts told AFP that the retaliation would be measured to avoid a wider conflagration.
Iran and the groups it backs “will more than likely try to avert a war, while also strongly deterring Israel from continuing with this new policy, this targeted shock and awe,” said Amal Saad, a Hezbollah researcher and lecturer at Britain’s Cardiff University.
In Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.
