Middle East on knife-edge after killing of Hamas leader in Iran; Israel's opponents vow retaliation

• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike on the Iranian capital of Tehran early Wednesday.
• Just one day prior, Israeli forces declared that they killed Hezbollah's second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in a strike on Beirut, Lebanon.
• Iran has pledged to retaliate, but how it does so could determine how intensely the conflict escalates.
• The alleged Israeli killing of Haniyeh marks a blow to Hamas and essentially torpedoes any near-term chances of a ceasefire between the warring parties.

The Middle East is on edgeafter a dramatic escalation that saw top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in a strike in the Iranian capital of Tehran early Wednesday.

Iranian officials are blaming Israel for what they say is an assassination, but a spokesman for Israel's government on Wednesday declined to comment on the death of Haniyeh, Reuters reported.

"Israel was very clear - Haniyeh was a dead man walking," Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, wrote in a post on X following the news. "Once out of Doha, it was game time. Coming hours after the killing of Fuad Shukr in Beirut, the Middle East is on an absolute knife-edge now."

Just one day prior, Israeli forces declared that they killed Hezbollah's second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in a strike on a densely-populated area of Beirut, in retaliation for a strike last week on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed several children. Israel blames Iranian-backed Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah for the attack, a charge Hezbollah has thus far denied.

Haniyeh served as the chief of Hamas' politburo and was seen as a more relatively moderate figure within the organization — importantly, he led cease-fire negotiations with Israel and was the