Funeral prayers in Doha will take place at the Imam Abdul Wahhab Mosque following the Friday prayers. His body will then be transported to his final resting place at the Founder Imam Cemetery in Lusail.

The body of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh has arrived in Qatar where it will be laid to rest following his assassination in Iran on Wednesday by Israel.

A large crowd of mourners flooded Tehran’s streets in the early hours of Thursday during the funeral procession.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the funeral prayers as thousands gathered at the Tehran University to bid farewell to the late Hamas official and his bodyguard, who was killed in the same attack.

According to a statement by Hamas on Wednesday, funeral prayers in Doha will take place at the Imam Abdul Wahhab Mosque following the Friday prayers. His body will then be transported to his final resting place at the Founder Imam Cemetery in Lusail.

Haniyeh, who has lived in Qatar since 2019, was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in the Iranian capital, where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.

Hamas had confirmed Haniyeh’s assassination in a statement, where it said he “was killed in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”

Iran’s supreme leader vowed to severely punish Israel, with sources also telling The New York Times that he ordered for Iran to directly strike Israel in retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh. 

“The criminal, terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our territory and has caused our grief, but it has also prepared the ground for a severe punishment,” Khamenei said on X.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations also said that it will respond to the assassination.

“The response to an assassination will indeed be special operations—harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator,” the mission said on X.

The assassination of Haniyeh came at a critical time amid indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, in hopes of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani questioned the Israeli assassination of Haniyeh.

“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side? Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life,” he said on X on Wednesday.

The United States, Israel’s main backer, denied having knowledge on the attack.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, National Security Advisor John Kirby told reporters at the White House that they had no independent confirmation on the matter.

“I’m not in a position to confirm the reports coming out of Tehran.  I’ve seen the statement that Hamas put out.  I can’t confirm or — or verify.  We have no independent confirmation,” he said.

The killing of Haniyeh was met with global outrage and condemnations, with countries’ leaders and governments issuing statements denouncing the move. Some of those countries include Türkiye, Russia, China, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Venezuela among over a dozen of others.