By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/killings-of-hamas-and-hezbollah-leaders-escalate-fears-regional-war-could-ignite Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio The top political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed overnight in Tehran, just hours after an Israeli airstrike killed one of the top military leaders of Hezbollah in Beirut. Taken together, after ten months of war in Gaza, the attacks escalated fears that a simmering regional conflict could explode into a new and more dangerous phase. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: The top political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed overnight in Tehran just hours after an Israeli airstrike killed one of the top military leaders of Hezbollah and Beirut. Taken together, after 10 months of war in Gaza, the attacks escalated fears that a simmering regional conflict could explode into a new and more dangerous phase.Nick Schifrin starts our coverage. Nick Schifrin: In the hours before his death, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh met Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's new president, and with Iranian lawmakers pledged the victory he spent his life promising. It was his final public expression.Overnight, he and his Iranian bodyguard were killed in what Hamas and Iran described as an Israeli drone strike. Iran immediately vowed vengeance. Khamenei posted: "It is our duty to take revenge."And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Israel will — quote — "face a harsh and painful response from the powerful and huge resistance front, especially Islamic Iran."That threat of regional war was repeated today by Iranian proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, and in Lebanon by Hezbollah and Hamas, which vowed to take the battle with Israel to — quote — "new dimensions."But it was met with defiance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through interpreter): We are prepared for any scenario and will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a heavy price from any aggression against us on any front.Never again is now.(Cheering)(Applause) Nick Schifrin: And one week after his address to Congress, Netanyahu today suggested defying the U.S. led to Israel's military successes. Benjamin Netanyahu (through interpreter): All the achievements that we have made in recent months we achieved because we did not give in, because we made courageous decisions, despite the great pressure at home and abroad. Nick Schifrin: Israel didn't make any formal statement about Haniyeh today, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Arrow missile defense system designed to protect from Iranian missiles. Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister (through interpreter): Your actions give us the confidence and space to make decisions. We do not seek war, but we are preparing for all possibilities. Nick Schifrin: Haniyeh rose through Hamas' ranks and was an early advocate of Hamas' entering politics. He became Hamas' prime minister after it won 2006 parliamentary elections.He nurtured Hamas' connection with and support from Iran. After handing power over to current Hamas leader and October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, he moved to Qatar, where most recently he led Hamas in ongoing cease-fire talks. Those are hosted by Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Than, who asked today: "How can mediation succeed when one party assassins the negotiator on the other side?"Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: This is something we were not aware of or involved in. Nick Schifrin: In Asia today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called cease-fire talks the priority. Antony Blinken: The imperative of getting a cease-fire, the importance that has for everyone remains. And we will continue to labor that for as long as it takes to get there. Nick Schifrin: But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also promised to defend Israel from Iranian and Hezbollah attacks.Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense: If Israel is attacked, we certainly will help defend Israel. You saw us do that in April. You can expect to see us do that again. But we don't want to see any of that happen. We're going to work hard to make sure that we're doing things to help take the temperature down and address issues through diplomatic means. Nick Schifrin: But across the region, diplomats tell PBS "News Hour" diplomacy feels a long way off. Hezbollah was already poised to respond to Israel's assassination also yesterday of its most senior military officer, Fuad Shukr.Hezbollah today confirmed his death and posted new photos of Shukr next to Hezbollah and Iran's most senior officials. And so the risk tonight is that a war in Gaza the U.S. was already trying to end would instead spread.For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Jul 31, 2024 By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi is a foreign affairs producer, based in Washington DC. She's a Columbia Journalism School graduate with an M.A. in Political journalism. She was one of the leading members of the NewsHour team that won the 2024 Peabody award for News for our coverage of the war in Gaza and Israel. @Zebaism By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin