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Join on Telegram Rabat – Moroccan political parties and associations have condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was murdered earlier today in his residence in Tehran, Iran.
Abdelilah Benkirane, Morocco’s Justice and Development Party’s (PJD) leader, conveyed his political group’s condolences for the killing of Haniyeh, describing it as a “treacherous terrorist operation.”
“On this sorrowful occasion, I extend to you, on my behalf and behalf of the members of the party’s general secretariat and all its members, my deepest condolences,” Benkirane said.
He described the killing of Haniyeh as a “criminal” and “cowardly terrorist” act, noting that this situation would only lead to “further defeat and failure for the Zionist enemy.”
For Benkirane, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) will not deter the “heroic Palestinian people and their valiant resistance from continuing their struggle to achieve their full rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Mohamed Nabil Benabdellah, Secretary General of the Party of Progress and Socialism echoed the same concerns, describing Haniyeh’s killing as a “heinous crime” and a “terrorist assassination.”
“What further highlights the arrogance of the Zionist entity is that the assassination of political leader Ismail Haniyeh, like most previous terrorist assassinations of Palestinian leaders, takes place on the soil of other countries, constituting a serious violation of these countries’ sovereignty, international legitimacy, and international law,” Benabdellah said.
Hamas announced that its political chief was killed today along with his bodyguard in a “treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”
Haniyeh traveled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Moroccan Association of Human Rights also condemned the killing of Haniyeh, calling for massive participation in protests scheduled across Morocco in front of the Moroccan parliament today.
Morocco has been witnessing dozens of weekly protests, condemning IOF’s ongoing massacres targeting civilians across Gaza.
Who is Haniyeh?
Born in 1962 in Gaza, Haniyeh joined Hamas in 1983.
The Hamas leader was a former prisoner in Israeli jails after he was arrested in the 1980s for his participation in protests against the occupation.
Israel jailed him twice again, in 1988 where he spent six months in the occupation’s prisons, as well as in 1989 where he spent three years in an Israeli prison.
According to Al Jazeera, Israel deported him to southern Lebanon along with other Palestinian activists, where he spent a year.
It was during that time that the group gained a global reputation due to unprecedented media coverage.
“After the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Haniyeh returned to Gaza in 1993, at the age of 31, and was appointed dean of the Islamic University,” the news outlet added.
Within this period, Haniyeh served as a close aide of Hamas co-founder, late Sheikh Ahmed Yassine.
Haniyeh was subject to an assassination attempt along with Sheikh Yassine in 2003, when Israel sought to strike them with its jets in an apartment in Gaza.
Six months later, Sheikh Yassine was targeted and killed by IOF helicopters.
In 2006, Haniyeh succeeded in clinching a legislative victory over the Fatah movement.
He briefly served as a prime minister for Palestine in 2006. President Mahmoud Abbas later dismissed him amid division and violent battles between Fatah and Hamas.
