PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the murder of Ismail Haniyeh, the political bureau chairman of the Hamas resistance movement, was a heinous act.
“I condemn the killing in the strongest possible terms. The murder was designed to derail ongoing talks aimed at ending the carnage in Gaza that has claimed over 40,000 lives.
“This could only have been carried out in an environment of utter impunity,” he said in a statement.
Anwar said only the heedless and unconscionable would not see the need to intensify pressure on Israel to stop their murderous rampage.
“I am deeply concerned about what this tragedy would mean for the Palestinian people, who have already been so cruelly subjected to so much pain, hardship and suffering for so many decades.
“Detractors who have criticised me for meeting with Ismail Haniyeh in the past fail to appreciate Haniyeh’s profound desire for a peaceful Middle East and a Palestinian nation restored to its rightful dignity.
“I mourn the loss of a dear friend and a valiant advocate for his people. Al-Fatihah,” he said.
Earlier, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards reported that Haniyeh was killed in Iran today.
The Islamist faction mourned the death of Haniyeh, stating he was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
He had attended Iran’s new president’s swearing-in ceremony yesterday.
Haniyeh was the international face of Hamas and the most senior leader of the Palestinian resistance group to be assassinated by Israel since the 2004 attack that killed its spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza.
The 62-year-old Haniyeh was head of Hamas’s political bureau and had been living in Qatar since 2023. – July 31, 2024.
