Biden criticizes assassination of top Hamas leader for muddying ceasefire plans

On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will make ceasefire negotiations all the more difficult.

As Hamas’s political chief, Haniyeh had engaged in ceasefire talks. Biden has been under immense pressure from his party to push Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal with the terrorist organization that would slow hostilities in Gaza and include the exchange of hostages. However, the successful assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran outraged Iran, which is vowing it will seek retaliation against Israel.

Israel has not claimed credit for the killing, which reportedly took months of planning, including smuggling a bomb into the guesthouse where Haniyeh was set to stay. The explosive device was dormant and undetected beneath the house for months.

Haniyeh was assassinated just hours after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president on Wednesday.

The United States has been working with Israel to broker a ceasefire with Hamas for months, and Biden said Haniyeh’s death “doesn’t help” the situation. 

Israel has yet to comment on nor take any responsibility for Haniyeh’s death. The Israel Defense Forces had taken credit for recent strikes killing senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Mohammed Deif, Hamas military leader, in Gaza.

Now, there’s concern Haniyeh’s death is going to make the war drag out longer. Already, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, with still around 80 Israeli hostages left alive. 

Conflict between Israel and its neighbors has been simmering for decades, but full-scale war broke out after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 civilians and taking 251 hostages. 

Biden has been working closely with Netanyahu in negotiating peace talks and has authorized billions of dollars in military aid to Israel — garnering widespread criticism from pro-Palestinian groups. The war in Gaza has led to the displacement of 2.3 million people and has been deemed a humanitarian crisis.