Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the entire Palestinian national movement in condemning the assassination, mourning the martyrdom and saluting the life of the leader, Ismail Haniyeh, Abu al-Abed, the chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, in Tehran, Iran.
Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration of newly elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and also met with Imam Khamenei today, alongside Ziyad Nakhaleh of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, and was assassinated along with his bodyguard and companion, the martyr Wassim Abu Shaaban, in the residence where he was staying by a “treacherous Zionist raid,” as Hamas stated in the movement’s first statement on the assassination.
The assassination policy of the Zionist regime has attempted to erase the leadership of the Palestinian people for over 76 years now. The names of the martyrs of assassination are great, shining figures of history. Ismail Haniyeh. Saleh al-Arouri. Abu Ali Mustafa. Fathi Shiqaqi. Ghassan Kanafani. Kamal Nasser. Abdel-Aziz Rantisi. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Abu Jihad. Mohammed al-Najjar. Basil al-Kubaisi. Tareq Izzedine. Samir Kuntar. Kamal Udwan. Imad Mughniyyeh. Sheikh Khader Adnan. Ibrahim al-Rai: A parade of martyrs on the road to the liberation of Palestine.
Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated as part of a comprehensive policy of the Zionist regime that aims to eliminate the leaders, spokespeople and revolutionary voices of the Palestinian liberation movement.
This aggression was also an act of war against Iran, and came on the same day as the attempted assassination of a leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement, through the Zionist bombing of the southern suburbs of Beirut, and on a day that the US bombed Iraq, targeting the Iraqi resistance, assassinating three members of the resistance forces. It is also clear that this is not a Zionist crime alone, but a crime bought and paid for by the United States and its imperialist partners.
These assassinations have not undermined the strength, solidarity, commitment and firmness of the alliance of resistance forces in the region. From Iran to Lebanon, Yemen to Iraq to Syria, and of course, to Palestine, where the people and the Resistance daily confront the genocidal Zionist regime, the people have the right and the determination to resist, to respond and to confront the assassins and genocidaires. Further, this crime does not demonstrate the “strength” of the Zionist entity but rather its desperation and decline. These assassinations and international aggressions come as the Zionist regime is rent with internal contradictions and riots as settlers and soldiers demand the right to rape imprisoned Palestinians, reflecting the death throes of a wounded colonial monster.
Ismail Haniyeh, 61, a husband, father and grandfather, was born a Palestinian refugee in al-Shati camp and struggled all his life for the liberation of the Palestinian people. From his days as a student, a football player, and a leader in the Islamic Bloc at the Islamic University of Gaza, he was dedicated to the Hamas movement and to Palestine. In 1989, amid the great popular Intifada and shortly after the founding of the movement, Haniyeh was abducted and imprisoned by the Zionist regime for three years, before he was among 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and members forcibly deported to Marj al-Zuhour in southern Lebanon on 17 December 1992, alongside Dr. Abdelaziz al-Rantisi, Sheikh Youssef Sarkji, Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahhar, and, among many others, Mustafa Abu Ora, the martyr of the prisoners’ movement just five days ago.
He headed the office of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza and was elected the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2004, following the assassination of Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi. In 2017 Haniyeh was elected by the Hamas movement to lead its Political Bureau and was reelected to this position in 2021.
Haniyeh was the chief negotiator mandated by the Hamas movement and all of the organizations of the Palestinian Resistance, and this assassination aims to prevent him from seeing and directly welcoming the prisoners freed by the Resistance and once again underlines that the Zionist regime is only interested in continued genocide.
Over 60 of his family members have been martyred, killed by the Zionist regime in the past 10 months, including three of his children and five of his grandchildren. “The blood of my children is not more valuable than the blood of the people of Palestine and all the martyrs in Gaza are my children,” he said, cherishing all of the martyrs of Palestine.
“There is no difference between the martyrs, and they have all been chosen by the Most Merciful to pave our way to victory and freedom,” he said. “The blood of the martyrs demands that we do not compromise, do not relent, do not change or alter, do not weaken, and do not despair, but continue our path with determination.”
The martyr Tareq Izzedine, of the Islamic Jihad movement, gave his last statement before his assassination on the martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan, himself assassinated through deliberate refusal of medical care in the Zionist prisons. His words remain resonant today (video by Resistance News Network): “Whenever a leader ascends, ten will emerge to replace them. When a martyr ascends, 100 martyrs will emerge to replace them. The march continues, and it does not stop until the defeat of the occupation.”
Just today, Ismail Haniyeh said, in his meeting with Imam Khamenei, “Yesterday marked the 300th day of the Gaza War, and we have now reached a critical and historic stage in which the Palestinian people and the Resistance Forces must sustain their heroism and victory.”
His last major statement was for the prisoners, and for popular mobilization, urging people everywhere to participate in the August 3 call to action for Gaza and the Prisoners. “Freedom is near for our dignified prisoners and honorable female prisoners, and victory is coming for our people and our valiant resistance.”
“We call for active and massive participation on this national and global day in defense of our prisoners and our people in the Gaza Strip, to expose the brutal crimes of the occupation against them, and to support their rights and just cause….We look forward to making the 3 of August a pivotal day in all parts of Palestine, in the refugee camps and the diaspora, in our Arab and Islamic world, & among all the free people of the world, to support our people in Gaza and our free prisoners in the occupation’s prisons.”
We must all mobilize, on August 3 and beyond. We must all act. We must all continue the struggle, to confront Zionism and imperialism everywhere and to hold them accountable for their crimes.
From Beirut to Tehran to Gaza to Haifa, to all of our communities, this is the time for action and confrontation. They have never killed the resistance and will not succeed in doing so today.
Ismail Haniyeh and all of the martyrs live on, and their legacy of commitment, sacrifice and love for the people is an inspiration to generations to come. The defeat of Zionism is forthcoming, as is the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. Every one of the honourable martyrs have sacrificed everything in order to make that vision a material reality that is closer every day.
Glory to the martyr Ismail Haniyeh and all the martyrs of Palestine and the Resistance. Return, liberation and victory to Palestine, all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
