Haniyeh assassination: 'This is what every Palestinian wishes...martyrdom'

The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Tehran has come as a "thunderbolt" to war-weary Palestinians in Gaza, with some expressing disappointment that Iran was unable to "protect him".

"This news is like a thunderbolt, something unbelievable," said Wael Qudayh, 35, a resident of the central city of Deir al Balah.

On Wednesday, Hamas announced that Haniyeh had been killed in Tehran in an Israeli strike.

He was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in on Tuesday of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

"Qatar was able to protect Haniyeh for 10 months, but Iran was unable to protect him even for a few hours," said Youssef Saeed, 40, also a resident of Deir el Balah.

Hossam Abdel Razek, 45, an employee in a private institution in Ramallah, said Haniyeh's killing showed that the "blood of Palestinians is cheap".

"The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran proves that we, the Palestinian people, have no protector, that our blood is cheap," he said.

'Martyrdom'

Palestinian factions, meanwhile, called for a general strike and marches across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to protest the killing of Haniyeh.

AFP journalists in Ramallah witnessed employees leaving government buildings in response to the strike call.

AFP photographers saw closed shops and employees leaving work in several cities in the occupied West Bank cities.

The strike covered all cities and towns in the occupied West Bank, and Haniyeh was mourned via loudspeakers in many mosques , an Anadolu correspondent reported.

Several Palestinians in besieged Gaza said Haniyeh had achieved "martyrdom" because of the way he was killed.

"This is what every Palestinian hopes for... to obtain martyrdom while defending his land, his people and its sanctities," said Muhammad Farwana, 38, from the southern city of Khan Yunis, where Israeli troops ended a major ground assault this week that displaced tens of thousands of people.

"Haniyeh was someone who gave away his children and grandchildren on the same path."

In June, 10 family members of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli air strike in Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza.

In April, Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, with the Israeli military accusing them of "terrorist activities".

Haniyeh, at the time, said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war broke out on October 7.

The war began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people.

Israel's brutal war on Palestinians has killed at least 39,400 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.