Mourners bury Hamas chief Haniyeh in Qatar as more escalation looms over the Middle East

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of mourners converged around the flag-draped coffin of Hamas' slain political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in the emirate of Qatar on Friday as the fallout surged from his death in an alleged Israeli attack.

The funeral ceremony in Doha, Qatar's capital, attended by members of Gaza's militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups as well as Qatari and Iranian officials, was subdued. But across the Muslim world — from Jordan and Morocco to Yemen and Somalia — angry crowds waving Palestinian flags rushed out of mosques after midday Friday prayers, chanting for revenge.

“Let Friday be a day of rage to denounce the assassination,” said Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas official. Haniyeh had lived in Qatar, along with other senior members of Hamas’s political leadership.

Following the back-to-back assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran early Wednesday and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut the evening before, international diplomats have scrambled to head off a full-fledged regional war. Iran and its proxies vowed to retaliate. Major airlines canceled flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Beirut, Lebanon.

Cyprus said Friday it was preparing for possible mass evacuations of foreign citizens via the island nation, in case of a wider war. France beefed up security for Jewish communities nationwide. Poland warned its citizens against traveling to the Mideast.

Pakistan and Turkey lowered their flags to half-staff, prompting Israel to summon Turkey’s deputy ambassador for a “stern reprimand.”

Turkey's foreign ministry spokesperson, Oncu Keceli, shot back that Israel “cannot achieve peace by killing the negotiators” — a reference to Haniyeh's role in cease-fire talks — while hundreds of Turks gathered at the historic Hagia Sophia to pay tribute to the slain Hamas leader as his funeral service got underway in Doha.

“We are sure that his blood will bring out victory, dignity and liberation,” senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, seen as a possible successor to Haniyeh, said from the Doha mosque where Haniyeh's coffin was displayed beside that of his bodyguard who was also killed in the attack in Tehran.

Israel has not confirmed or denied its role in the targeted killing of Haniyeh.

Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in a strike on a guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Iranian president.

Khaled Kaddoumi, Hamas' representative in Iran, was staying on a lower floor. Kaddoumi said he woke up shortly before 2 a.m. when his room was shaken and he saw a flash out the window.

At first, Kaddoumi said he thought it was thunder and lightning or an earthquake. By the time he got out of his room, smoke was everywhere and his colleagues told him Haniyeh was killed. Kaddoumi saw Haniyeh face down, on the floor. He spotted the body of Haniyeh’s bodyguard, holding a bloody Quran. No one else was injured, he said.

There was so much dust and smoke in the room, Kaddoumi had to wear a mask. The roof and the walls overlooking the exterior were destroyed, he said.

Kaddoumi said it looked like the room was hit by a missile. A photo that he said was of the building after the attack appeared to show less structural damage than would typically be seen from a large airstrike. The damage appeared more consistent with a smaller explosive, potentially delivered by a drone or planted at the site.

Kaddoumi said Haniyeh had stayed in the same guesthouse in May, when he attended the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a plane crash.

Haniyeh’s killing was another blow to the Hamas leadership.

On Thursday, Israel announced that it killed the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike. Hamas had previously claimed Deif survived last month’s targeted airstrike in the besieged Gaza Strip, and did not comment on Israel's more recent claim.

The deadly pattern of Israeli airstrikes and skirmishes continued in Gaza, where Palestinian Civil Defense rescuers said a barrage of airstrikes Friday in southern Gaza City killed five Palestinians, including three children. The Israeli military said it had destroyed rocket launchers used by Hamas hours earlier.

There were no services held for Haniyeh in the enclave, where the extent of loss has become so overwhelming that Palestinians are forced to inter their dead family members hurriedly and without last rites.

“We can't memorialize any of our loved ones anymore, funerals are too risky for fear of being killed in bombing ourselves,” said Ahmed Qamar, 35, displaced in a shelter in northern Gaza.

At least 39,480 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the nearly 10 months since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war. Palestinian health authorities providing the casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Tensions also ran high on Israel’s northern border days after Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr, the Hezbollah commander. On Friday, Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket and artillery attacks on Israel, causing a fire but no casualties in an evacuated Israeli town. Israel claimed its warplanes struck two Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon who it said had fired the volley of rockets.

The exchange was more of the same tit-for-tat that has flared along the Lebanese-Israeli border throughout the Israel-Hamas war. But Israelis and Lebanese braced for more after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday declared that Shukr's killing had pushed the conflict into a “new phase."

Across the region, vows by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Israel would pay a price for killing Haniyeh on Iranian soil quickly led to calls for intense diplomacy to prevent further escalation.

Late Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize the chance for a cease-fire, adding that Haniyeh's killing in Iran had “not helped" efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

Netanyahu has portrayed Israel's recent targeting of Hamas leaders as victories that bring Israel closer to a deal that would free the roughly 110 remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Mideast peace process, said he was racing to work with Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt and other nations to “prevent a spillover of the conflict.”

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Israel on Friday “to push for an immediate cease-fire," while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he spoke with his American counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“The unprecedented security cooperation between Israel and the United States against Iran and its proxies is critical," Gallant said.

Though approvals are still pending, Austin is preparing to provide additional military support to Israel and boost protection for U.S. troops in the region , against any threats from Iran and its regional proxies, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Friday. That could involve deploying additional military units, she said, declining to provide details.

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.

With destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip behind him, an Israeli soldier waves from a tank, near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Iranians follow the truck carrying the coffins of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard who were killed in an assassination blamed on Israel on Wednesday, during their funeral ceremony at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024. The Israeli military said Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

FILE -Palestinians inspect the damage at a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024. Israel said it targeted Hamas' shadowy military commander Mohammed Deif in a massive strike Saturday in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 71 people, according to local health officials. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

This video grab shows senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, center, praying near the coffin of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard during the funeral prayers in Doha, Qatar, Friday Aug. 2, 2024. (Qatar TV via AP)

This video grab shows Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's coffin being carried out after the funeral prayers in Doha, Qatar, Friday Aug. 2, 2024. (Qatar TV via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — A helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront Thursday, killing six people in the latest high-profile aviation disaster in the U.S., according to witnesses and a law enforcement official.

The New York Fire Department said it received a report of the crash at 3:17 p.m. All six people aboard were killed, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

Witness Bruce Wall said he saw the helicopter “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and propeller coming off. The propeller was still spinning without the aircraft as it fell, he said.

Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.

“There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard,” she said in a phone interview.

Video posted to social media showed parts of the chopper splashing into the water, and the overturned aircraft was submerged, with rescue boats circling it.

The skies were overcast at the time, but visibility over the river was not substantially impaired. Rescue crews had to deal with 45-degree water temperatures.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.

The rescue craft were near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the river. Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were on streets near the scene with their lights flashing.

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with both planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads that whisk business executives and others to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.

Over the years, there have been multiple crashes, including a collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River in 2009 that killed nine people and the 2018 crash of a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights that went down into the East River, killing five people.

A medical transport plane killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington — the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.

The crashes and other close calls have left some people worried about the safety of flying.

As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene where a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

First responders from New Jersey and New York respond to the scene where a helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

As seen from Pier 40 in New York, police and fire crews from New York and New Jersey respond to the scene Thursday, April 10, 2025, where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River between Manhattan and the New Jersey waterfront. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

First responders walk along Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)

A New York Fire Department Marine 1 boat departs from Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)

First responders walk along Pier 40, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in New York, across from where a helicopter went down in the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)