Iran’s supreme leader presided over a funeral Thursday for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard who were killed in an assassination blamed on Israel that risked escalating into an all-out regional war.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran University while Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian stood next to him.
State television later showed the coffins placed in a truck and moved on the street toward Azadi Square in Tehran and people throwing flowers at them.
After the funeral services in Tehran, Haniyeh’s remains are to be transferred to Qatar for burial on Friday.
Haniyeh came to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Pezeshkian.
He was killed in an airstrike that hit a residence Haniyeh uses in Tehran.
Iranian authorities said the attack is under investigation but haven’t provided details.
Israel had pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
The strike came just hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran’s ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Iran supports Hamas, as well as Hezbollah and other Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.