Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues warning on revenge attacks after Haniyeh and Shukr killings

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly commanded a direct strike on Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while in Tehran.

According to The New York Times, which cited unnamed Iranian officials, the Supreme leader issued the order during an emergency session of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning local time.

Posting on X, Ayatollah Khamenei said it was Iran’s “duty to take revenge”.

Although the Tehran attack was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not claim responsibility and said it would not comment on Haniyeh’s killing.

Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him “directly” in a state guest house where he was staying, Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, told a news conference in Tehran, quoting witnesses who were with Haniyeh.

“Now we are waiting for the full investigation from the (Iranian) brothers,” al-Hayya said.

Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 has raged in Gaza.

He had been taking part in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies over the past few days, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

But he did not mention Haniyeh’s killing, which has drawn threats of revenge on Israel and fuelled further concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war.

“Citizens of Israel, challenging days lie ahead. Since the strike in Beirut there are threats sounding from all directions. We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a heavy price for any aggression against us from any arena,” Mr Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

Two Lebanese security sources said on Wednesday that the body of Shukr had been found in the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel’s military announced late on Tuesday it had killed Fuad Shukr, whom it named as Hezbollah’s most senior commander and whom it blamed for an attack at the weekend that left a dozen youngsters dead in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Shukr was an adviser to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, according to Hezbollah sources and Israeli officials.

Hezbollah confirmed his death on Wednesday, hours after the Palestinian armed group Hamas announced its leader, Haniyeh, had been assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran.