Hamas leader’s killing risks ‘wider conflict,’ Islamic bloc chair warns

The “heinous” killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh risks tipping the Middle East into “wider conflict,” the chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) told a summit on Wednesday.

Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara spoke at the beginning of an extraordinary session of the 57-member OIC in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.

The gathering of foreign ministers was called in part by Iran, where Haniyeh was killed last week in an attack the Islamic Republic has blamed on Israel.

“This heinous act serves only to escalate the existing tensions potentially leading to a wider conflict that could involve the entire region,” said Tangara, whose country currently chairs the OIC.

Haniyeh’s killing “will not quell the Palestinian cause but rather it amplifies it, underscoring the urgency for justice and human rights for the Palestinian people,” he said.

“The sovereignty and territorial integrity of nation states are fundamental principles underpinning the international order.

“Respecting these principles has profound implications and their violation equally carries significant consequences.”

Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s killing, which Iran has vowed to avenge, putting the region on edge.

Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.

Wednesday’s extraordinary meeting was intended to address “the continued crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people,” according to an OIC statement this week.

It is far from the first time the bloc has weighed in on the war, which began with Hamas’ October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

That operation resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,677 people, according to the Gaza health ministry.

In addition to issuing regular statements condemning civilian deaths in Gaza, OIC leaders gathered with their counterparts from the Arab League in November for a summit that condemned Israeli forces’ “barbaric” actions in Gaza.