Mourners gather as Hamas leader Haniyeh is buried in Qatar

The burial ceremony for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran on Wednesday, is beneath approach in Qatar.

Funeral prayers for Haniyeh will happen on the Imam Muhammed bin Abdul Wahhab mosque – the biggest in Qatar – earlier than he’s buried at a cemetery in Lusail, a metropolis north of Doha.

Distinguished figures within the Hamas motion – together with his predecessor as chief, Khaled Meshaal – stood on the tarmac at Doha airport because the aircraft carrying Haniyeh’s coffin landed from Iran on Thursday afternoon.

Haniyeh was killed during a visit to Iran’s capital. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel, although Israel has not claimed duty for his demise.

Hamas stated that “Arab and Islamic leaders” and people concerned with different Palestinian factions would attend, in addition to members of the general public.

Turkey and Pakistan introduced a day of mourning on Friday in honour of Haniyeh, whereas Hamas has known as for “roaring anger marches… from each mosque” to happen after Friday prayers to protest Haniyeh’s killing.

At a separate funeral ceremony for Haniyeh which happened in Tehran on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the prayers – having earlier vowed that Israel would endure a “harsh punishment” for the killing.

Haniyeh had been based mostly in Doha since about 2019. The Hamas political workplace moved to the Qatari capital in 2012, following the closure of its earlier workplace in Damascus, Syria.

Haniyeh had performed a key position in oblique talks with Israel over a possible ceasefire deal for the struggle in Gaza.

The heads of the CIA, Mossad and the intelligence companies of Egypt and Qatar had attended negotiations in Doha

Haniyeh’s burial caps per week of hovering tensions within the Center East, which escalated with the killing of 12 children and teenagers in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel accused Hezbollah and vowed “extreme” retaliation, although Hezbollah denied it was concerned.

Days later, senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in a focused Israeli air strike in Beirut. 4 others, together with two kids, had been additionally killed.

Hours after that, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran, Hamas’s important backer. He was visiting to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Israel has not claimed duty for the assassination, however Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated afterward that Israel delivered “crushing blows” to Iran’s proxy teams in current days.

A senior Hamas official instructed the BBC the killing happened in the identical constructing the place Haniyeh had stayed throughout earlier visits to Iran. Three Hamas leaders and various guards had been with him in the identical constructing, they stated.

The killing of Haniyeh left the management of Hamas in “a state of shock”, prime Hamas officers instructed the BBC.

The circumstances round his demise stay unclear.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, instructed a information convention {that a} missile hit Haniyeh “straight”, citing witnesses who had been with him.

However a report within the New York Times, which cites seven officers, says Haniyeh was killed by a bomb that had been smuggled two months in the past into the constructing the place he was staying.

The BBC has not been capable of confirm both of those claims.