West Bank Protests Over Hamas Leader's Killing

Palestinians gathered in various parts of the West Bank to protest the killing of Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran's capital, Tehran.

Haniyeh, who lived mainly in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, was the tough-talking face of Hamas' international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed earlier this year by an Israeli airstrike.

Haniyeh had led the militant group since 2017 and had moved between Qatar and Turkey. There are fears that his killing could be the biggest obstacle to peace since Hamas triggered Gaza's war with an attack on Israel on Oct. 7. and has also stoked jitters about a wider, more complex Middle East war as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel trade fire over their border.

Also thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through the streets of Istanbul following the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

The Palestinian Islamist militant group and Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh's death.

Turkey condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the Iranian capital, saying the attack aimed to spread the war in Gaza on a regional level.

"It has been revealed once again that the government of Netanyahu has no intention of achieving peace," Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israel will respond forcefully to any attack on it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran's proxies over the past few days, including Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Although the strike on Haniyeh was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government made no claim of responsibility and said it would make no comment on the killing.