Palestinians walk through a deserted commercial area in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during a general strike on July 31, 2024. (Photo by Zain Jaafar / AFP)
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Tehran Wednesday came as a "thunderbolt" to war-weary Gazans, with some expressing disappointment Iran was unable to "protect him".
"This news is like a thunderbolt, something unbelievable," said Wael Qudayh, 35, a resident of the central city of Deir al-Balah.
On Wednesday, Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that Haniyeh had been killed in Tehran in an Israeli air strike.
He was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in on Tuesday of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Hossam Abdel Razek, 45, an employee in a private institution in Ramallah, said Haniyeh's killing showed that the "blood of Palestinians is cheap".
"The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran proves that we, the Palestinian people, have no protector, that our blood is cheap, and that the Arab and Islamic nation sold us out to America and Israel," he said.
'Martyrdom'
Palestinian factions meanwhile called for a general strike and marches across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to protest the killing of Haniyeh.
AFP journalists in Ramallah witnessed employees leaving government buildings in response to the strike call.
AFP photographers saw closed shops and employees leaving work in several West Bank cities.
Several Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said Haniyeh had achieved "martyrdom" because of the way he was killed.
"This is what every Palestinian hopes for... to obtain martyrdom while defending his land, his people and its sanctities," said Muhammad Farwana, 38, from the southern city of Khan Yunis, where Israeli troops ended a major ground assault this week that displaced tens of thousands of people.
"Haniyeh was someone who gave away his children and grandchildren on the same path."
In June, 10 family members of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
In April, Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, with the Israeli military accusing them of "terrorist activities".
Haniyeh at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war broke out on October 7.
