‘No more mercy’: Ministers celebrate Haniyeh’s killing though Israel officially mum
Netanyahu reportedly calls on cabinet members to refrain from comment, but Government Press Office briefly posts image of Haniyeh with the word ‘Eliminated’ across his forehead
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Cabinet ministers celebrated the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on social media Wednesday morning, despite Hebrew media reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered his ministers to remain silent on the overnight assassination in the Iranian capital.
“This is the right way to purge the world of this filth,” tweeted Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, intimating that Israel was behind the killing.
“No more imaginary ‘peace’/surrender agreements, no more mercy for these dead men walking,” he wrote in a post linked to an article announcing Haniyeh’s death.
“The iron fist that will strike them is the one that will bring quiet and a modicum of comfort, and strengthen our ability to live in peace with those who seek peace. Haniyeh’s death makes the world a slightly better place.”
Haniyeh, Hamas’s top political leader, was assassinated in the early hours of the morning in Iran, the Palestinian terror group said on Wednesday, describing the strike as a “severe escalation” that would not achieve its goals.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. The IRGC said it was investigating.
It was the second high-profile assassination attributed to Israel in a matter of hours, coming after an airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military leader.
Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Despite the fact that Israel has not taken credit for or officially commented on Haniyeh’s death, and the prime minister reportedly called on ministers not to make any public statements on the issue, Eliyahu was joined by ministers for the Diaspora and communications, Amichai Chikli and Shlomo Karhi, respectively.
In a tweet, Chikli wrote, “Careful What You Wish For” in English above a video of Haniyeh sitting in a conference hall while people chant “Death to Israel.” Karhi, in a since-deleted tweet, quoted the biblical verse “So may all your enemies perish, O Lord.”
Both ministers are members of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Careful What You Wish For pic.twitter.com/HkHjlF4Mzj
— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 31, 2024
Despite the lack of official confirmation, the Government Press Office, which operates under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office, briefly posted an image of Haniyeh with the word “Eliminated” stamped across his forehead. The post was later deleted.
Some members of the opposition criticized the ministers’ posts.
“How many likes do you get on a topic they asked not to comment on?” Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern quipped on Wednesday morning.
And one opposition party leader highlighted the ongoing hostage crisis. While “the elimination of the heads of the military wing of Hamas, Hezbollah and the head of the political wing of Hamas are an important security success, 115 hostages still haven’t returned home,” tweeted Yair Golan, head of the Labor-Meretz union The Democrats.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.
