After condemning the July 31 killing of Haniyeh, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spewed a mouthful at Israel, calling it a "criminal, murderous, and terrorist Zionist gang" that "disregard[s] international rules and regulations (and) spares no criminal action to cover up its humiliating defeats in the nine-month war in Gaza."
Israel's actions, the IRGC continued in a statement, have "resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinian women, men, and children."
The threatening part of the IRGC's statement came next as Iran promised to meet "this crime by the Zionist regime ... with a severe and painful response from the powerful and grand Resistance Axis, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran."
The IRGC also said that "the Martyr of Jerusalem" will bless Haniyeh's efforts "in defending the cause and rights of the Palestinian nation."
Following Haniyeh's death, Tehran announced a three-day period of mourning.
(Related: Iran continues to warn Israel that if it does not back off, a larger attack will come when they least expect it.)
Tensions between Israel and Iran reach breaking point
Haniyeh's death occurred just a few hours after Israel conducted an airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon's capital city. That attack in and of itself triggered a serious escalation that only worsened after Haniyeh was targeted as well.
The residential building attack resulted in three civilians, a woman and two children, dying. Another 70 people were injured. The target in that attack was Fuad Shukr, a top military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and director of Hezbollah's military operations.
Shukr's body was later found under the rubble, he being the orchestrator of the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
A regional flare-up is now likely a given as tensions between Israel and Iran – and Iran's proxies – reaches a boiling point. Both sides are hellbent on eradicating the other, and Israel is reportedly now opening up bomb shelters in Tel Aviv and Galilee.
"We don't want war but we are preparing for all possibilities," said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the day of Haniyeh's death.
As for the situation with Lebanon, IDF (Israel Defense Forces) chief of staff Herzi Halevi claims that his country's military has maneuvering capabilities that will allow it to prevail in that fight.
"The IDF knows how to operate and reach a certain window in a neighborhood in Beirut; it also knows how to attack at a certain point in the underground, and we also know how to maneuver inside very strongly," Halevi said.
"We have confidence in our plans to move forward because our intention with Hezbollah is not to return to October 6."
In the comments, someone suggested that had Israel not successfully assassinated both Haniyeh and Shukr, it likely would have been met with "a barrage of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIC) missiles from Gaza."
"There have been no reports of any such missiles, which means that the IDF is achieving its objectives there," this person said.
Another wrote that Halevi and other Israeli leaders still need to be held accountable for allowing the October 7 attack to happen in the first place.
"We have to fix the issues," he said.
One of our own wrote that he feels as though much of the fighting in the Middle East is just theater aimed at destabilizing the world as part of the chaos theory agenda.
The Middle East is a powder keg just waiting to explode. Learn more at Prophecy.news.
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