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Hamas Chief Delivers Eulogy at Iranian President’s Funeral Attended by Top Terrorist Leaders
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei performs prayer at a funeral for victims of helicopter crash that killed Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian, and others, in Tehran, Iran, May 22, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) Handout via REUTERS
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday delivered a eulogy for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a funeral in Iran attended by prominent members of terrorist organizations.
Haniyeh opened his speech “on behalf of the Palestinian people persevering in the Land of Palestine,” as he extended his condolences for the death of Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran on Sunday.
Haniyeh also thanked Raisi and Iran for their continued support of the “resistance factions in Gaza” and for creating, financing, and directing a “resistance axis” of Islamic, anti-Western militant organizations across the Middle East.
“Palestine is not a political issue,” said Haniyeh, the politburo chief of Hamas and one of the Palestinian terrorist group’s most visible leaders. “It is the backbone of the ummah’s [worldwide Islamic nation’s] doctrine.”
He added, “The ‘Resistance’ [Hamas] on the land of Palestine represents the foremost trench not just for the Resistance Axis, but for the entire ummah.” Haniyeh thanked Iran for its steadfast support for Hamas amid its current war against Israel in Gaza, which he called a “great shock to the Zionist entity.”
Iran is the chief international sponsor of Hamas, providing the terrorist group with arms, funding, and training.
Beyond Haniyeh, Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led prayers and presided over the funeral proceedings.
“Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but good from him,” he read in his Arabic commemorative passages.
Raisi was widely considered a potential successor to Khamenei as the highest power in the Islamic Republic’s government. Khamenei remained composed while reciting his Islamic mourning prayers and did not deliver a speech.
Haniyeh met with Khamenei in Tehran after the funeral.
Naim Qassem, the deputy head of Hezbollah, Iran’s powerful terrorist proxy based in Lebanon, was also in attendance on Wednesday, as were the prime ministers of Iraq, Armenia, and Tunisia, along with the chairman of Russia’s State Duma. Meanwhile, a crowd of tens of thousands of Iranian citizens attended the procession.
Hezbollah has been targeting northern Israel with drones and rockets, forcing tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to flee the northern part of the country bordering Lebanon, as the Jewish state has been fighting Hamas to the south in Gaza.
While politicians and terrorist organizations close to Iran paid their respects, Iranians at home and abroad have joined together in an outpouring of celebration over Raisi’s death.
In Tehran, fireworks were launched by Iranian citizens, and security forces were deployed to repress public demonstrations of joy. Iranians in the diaspora in cities across North America and Europe reacted by singing songs, dancing, and commemorating the event on social media.
Raisi is widely unpopular with Iranians opposed to Iran’s Islamist government. Considered a conservative hardliner even by the standards of the Islamic Republic’s ruling brass, Raisi has for decades been accused of major human rights abuses.
The UN, the US government, and human rights groups have documented and condemned how Iran notoriously executed thousands of political prisoners in 1988, when Raisi was deputy prosecutor of Tehran and part of a so-called “death committee” that ordered several of the killings. In that role, Raisi earned the nickname “the butcher of Tehran.”
Raisi’s administration also oversaw a bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrations that erupted across Iran in Sept. 2022 and became known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” revolution. Iranian security forces were condemned by the international community for their brutal response to the protests, including the deaths of hundreds of people and the detainment of tens of thousands of others.
That wasn’t the first time Raisi was involved in a violent suppression of Iranian protesters. In Dec. 2019, the US government confirmed that the Iranian regime killed about 1,500 anti-government protesters as part of a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations the prior month.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Raisi, who was judiciary chief at the time and had a direct role in the suppression effort, for “advancing” the regime’s “domestic and foreign oppression.”
The post Hamas Chief Delivers Eulogy at Iranian President’s Funeral Attended by Top Terrorist Leaders first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.