The Supreme Leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution has led a funeral prayer for Political Bureau Chief of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated by the Zionist regime in Tehran.
According to IRNA's reporter, the ceremony to bid farewell to Martyr Ismail Haniyeh started this morning (Thursday) at the University of Tehran.
Mourners holding portraits of Haniyeh gathered in and around the University of Tehran, where Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the coffins of the Hamas chief and one his bodyguards.
The office of the Supreme Leader had announced that the funeral prayer would be held at the university premise before the mourners march toward the Azadi Square.
Tens of thousands of mourners were lined up on the road to pay their last respect and bid farewell to Martyr Haniyeh while a caravan carrying the coffins was heading to the Azadi Square.
Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday. He was in the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has already announced three days of public mourning.
The Supreme Leader in a message following the martyrdom of the head of the political office of Hamas said: "The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself with this act, and we consider it our duty to avenge his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran".
Haniyeh will be laid to rest in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar following another funeral prayer there on Friday.
End/ 257