Blinken says US ‘not aware, involved in’ Hamas chief’s killing

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remain,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Washington is Israel’s key military backer and has been pushing for a Gaza ceasefire, which Blinken said remains “manifestly in the interests” of the Israeli hostages and Gazans who have been “caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making”.

As the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Haniyeh was overseeing the negotiations for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release hostages held in the territory in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire is also key to preventing the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

Qatar — a vital mediator in truce talks which also hosts Hamas’s political leadership that included Haniyeh — has questioned the future of negotiations in the wake of the assassination.

Hamas vowed the “cowardly” killing of their veteran leader “will not go unanswered”.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.