It is often feared that individual assassinations will spiral into wars. The Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday morning just a matter of hours after Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr was killed, looked as if it might start a new spiral on the road to outright war between Israel and Iran.
Shukr was said by Israel to have been behind the, probably accidental, bombing of the children’s playground at Majdal Shams on July 27, and the Israelis went after him in retaliation inside the Beirut suburb at the heart of the Hezbollah leadership. When Haniyeh travelled to Tehran for the inauguration of the new Iranian president, the Israelis targeted him in one of the guesthouses of the presidential compound itself. It was a stunning demonstration of successful intelligence, precision assassination, and Israel’s audacity to kill him on an Iranian state occasion. It emphasised the failure of Tehran to protect itself, showing Iranian leaders just how vulnerable they all are.
