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Hundreds gather for funeral of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh
Hundreds of people gathered at a mosque in Qatar on Friday for the funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after his killing in Tehran earlier this week, an attack blamed on Israel that deepened fears of a regional war.
Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief, played a key role in mediated talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, and his killing triggered calls for revenge and raised questions about the continued viability of such negotiations.
Mourners lined up for funeral prayers inside Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque, the Gulf emirate’s largest. Others prayed on mats outside in temperatures that reached 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images
Draped in a Palestinian flag, Haniyeh’s casket was carried briefly into the mosque before being taken for burial in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital.
The killing of Qatar-based Haniyeh is among several incidents since April that have sent regional tensions soaring during the Gaza war, which has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Turkey and Pakistan announced a day of mourning on Friday to honor Haniyeh, while Hamas called for a “day of furious rage.”
Many Doha mourners were dressed in crisp white traditional robes, others were wearing street clothes. But most wore scarves that combined the Palestinian flag with a checkered keffiyeh pattern and the message in English: “Free Palestine.”
Doha traffic police and Qatar’s internal security forces monitored all approaches and police lined highway embankments adjoining the mosque grounds.
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan were among the officials due at the funeral.
Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn “hit” on their accommodation in Tehran early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian a day earlier.
Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack, has not directly commented on it.
A source close to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement told the AFP that Iranian officials met in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss next steps with representatives of the “Axis of Resistance,” Tehran-aligned Middle East groups that include Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Two scenarios were discussed: a simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party,” said the source who had been briefed on the meeting and requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
During the Gaza war, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire, and did so again on Thursday.
The Hamas leader’s assassination came hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Hezbollah which supports Hamas.
Haniyeh’s deputy, Saleh al-Aruri, had already been killed in south Beirut earlier this year in a strike which a U.S. defense official said Israel carried out.
“Crushing blows to all our enemies”
In another high-profile killing, Israel’s army on Thursday confirmed that an air strike in July killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in Gaza.
Israel “delivered crushing blows to all our enemies,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
In Tehran on Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh, having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza.
The territory’s Civil Defence agency on Friday reported several people killed in the Gaza City area, and Israel’s military said it had killed around 30 militants near Rafah, in Gaza’s south.
Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
The New York Times, citing Middle Eastern officials, reported that Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device planted several weeks ago at a Tehran guesthouse.
Asked about the report, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists that “there was no other Israeli aerial attack… in all the Middle East” on the night of Shukr’s killing in Lebanon.
Hugh Lovatt, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Haniyeh’s killing, at the very least, “will mean that a ceasefire deal with Israel is now totally off of the table.”
Still, the international community called for calm and a focus on a Gaza truce – which Haniyeh had accused Israel of obstructing.
The White House said President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu by telephone on Thursday and affirmed his commitment to defend Israel’s security “against all threats from Iran.”
“We have the basis for a ceasefire. He should move on it and they should move on it now,” Biden told reporters after the call.
In Israel, hundreds of Israelis again marched in Tel Aviv to demand Netanyahu’s government reach a deal that would bring home the remaining hostages.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, addressing the funeral of Shukr, said Israel and “those who are behind it must await our inevitable response” to the twin killings.
Israel said Shukr’s assassination was a response to deadly rocket fire which killed 12 people, including children, last week in the annexed Golan Heights.
Tropical Storm Sara made landfall in Belize on Sunday as forecasters expect heavy rain to cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
The storm made landfall near Dangriga, about 55 miles southeast of the capital Belmopan, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
This comes after Sara drenched the northern coast of Honduras, where it stalled since Friday, swelling rivers and trapping people at home.
Moises Castillo / AP
One death was reported Saturday morning by Honduras Emergency Management, who also said that there have been at least 90 rescues and over 47,000 people affected by the storm.
The Hurricane Center’s tropical storm warning as of Sunday included Honduras’ Bay Islands as well as the country’s northern coast from Punta Castilla to its border with Guatemala; the Caribbean coast of Guatemala; Belize’s coast and northward into the coast of Mexico’s state of Quintana Roo, from Chetumal to Puerto Costa Maya.
The storm, which is moving at 6 mph, will continue to move inland over the Yucatan Peninsula and could drop up to 10 inches of rain across the area, with localized totals reaching 15 inches, through early next week. The conditions “will result in areas of flash flooding, perhaps significant, along with the potential of mudslides,” according to the Hurricane Center.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
“A storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 1 to 3 feet above ground level near and to the north of where the center of Sara crosses the coast of Belize,” the center said Sunday. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”
Sara is the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially runs from June 1 until Nov. 30, with activity typically peaking between mid-August and mid-October. An average season brings 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which did predict the 2024 season would produce “above average” numbers.
A gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued 700 survivors from the Titanic sold at auction for nearly $2 million, setting a record for memorabilia from the ship wreck.
The 18-carat Tiffany & Co. watch was given by three women survivors to Capt. Arthur Rostron for diverting his passenger ship, the RMS Carpathia, to save them and others after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the north Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1912.
Andrew Aldridge/Henry Aldridge and Son via AP
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son, who sold the watch to a private collector in the United States on Saturday for 1.56 million British pounds, said it’s the most paid-for piece of Titanic memorabilia. The price includes taxes and fees paid by the buyer.
The watch was given to Rostron by the widow of John Jacob Astor, the richest man to die in the disaster and the widows of two other wealthy businessmen who went down with the ship.
Astor’s pocket watch, which was on his body when it was recovered seven days after the ship sank, had previously set the record for the highest price paid for a Titanic keepsake, fetching nearly $1.5 million (1.17 million pounds) from the same auction house in April.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the fact that Titanic memorabilia has set two records this year demonstrates the enduring fascination with the story and the value of the dwindling supply and high demand for ship artifacts.
“Every man, woman and child had a story to tell, and those stories are told over a century later through the memorabilia,” he said.
Rostron was hailed a hero for his actions the night the Titanic sank and his crew was recognized for their bravery.
Andrew Aldridge/Henry Aldridge and Son via AP
The Carpathia was sailing from New York to the Mediterranean Sea when a radio operator heard a distress call from the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912 and woke Rostron in his cabin. He turned his boat around and headed at full steam toward the doomed vessel, navigating through icebergs to get there.
By the time the Carpathia arrived, the Titanic had sunk and 1,500 people perished. But the crew located 20 lifeboats and rescued more than 700 passengers and took them back to New York.
Rostron was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal by President William Howard Taft and was later knighted by King George V.
Madeleine Astor, who had been helped into a lifeboat by her husband, presented the watch to Rostron at a luncheon at her mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York.
The inscription says it was given “with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors.” It lists Mrs. John B. Thayer and Mrs. George D. Widener alongside Astor’s married name.
“It was presented principally in gratitude for Rostron’s bravery in saving those lives,” Aldridge said. “Without Mr. Rostron, those 700 people wouldn’t have made it.”
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