The killing Wednesday of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will likely derail urgent U.S.-led talks to stop the fighting in Gaza and open the door to a potentially ferocious response from Iran.

In an action widely blamed on Israel, Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike while in Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility, but few entities have the military capability to pull off what was apparently a precisely targeted lethal attack.

The timing of the assassination frustrated the Biden administration, which has invested enormous capital in cease-fire talks to bring at least a temporary end to the nearly 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington just last week. Both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris separately hammered him on the vital importance of agreeing to a cease-fire.

For months, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been engaged in tense and arduous negotiations with Israel and Hamas on a deal that would stop the fighting and release the hostages still being held by Hamas.

The hostages were captured in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the current conflict. Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory attacks in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has spurred a massive humanitarian crisis.

Haniyeh, who was based in exile in Qatar and headed the political wing of Hamas, was key in the cease-fire negotiations and the group’s main international interlocutor.

He was the Hamas figure who would sit with Qatari negotiators to receive the latest proposals and counterproposals from Israel, then relay them to the ultimate decision-maker, Yahya Sinwar, head of the Hamas military wing and believed to be in hiding in deep tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip. Then Haniyeh would relay Sinwar’s response back to negotiators.

Both the Israeli side and Hamas have put up obstacles to impede a final agreement, negotiators say. Hamas has wanted agreement to a permanent cease-fire, while Israel has wanted to reserve the right to resume bombardments.

U.S. officials Wednesday were urgently trying to prevent talks from breaking down altogether. Though a short-term suspension seems all but certain, U.S. officials said they believe talks will eventually resume, especially because there are lower-level leaders in Hamas who want a cease-fire despite Sinwar’s resistance.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spent much of the day in brief but pointed phone calls with Arab allies, particularly the Qataris, in an effort to get talks back on track. The Qataris have not yet threatened to end their mediation role, but voiced displeasure over Haniyeh’s killing.

“Political assassinations & continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Qatar’s Prime and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said on the social media platform X. “Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life.”

Blinken said the U.S. had no role in or advance knowledge of the assassination.

Netanyahu, however, has long vowed to wipe out Hamas.

“Israel is trying to show its own people that it’s open season on Hamas leaders,” said Daniel Byman, a veteran researcher on the Middle East and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Pointing to the killing of senior people is one way to say ‘we are winning.’”

But experts say “winning” against Hamas is an elusive goal. And Hamas leaders quickly said Wednesday that no killings will stop its fight against Israel.

“Hamas and the resistance are following a clear strategy, that was laid through multiple institutions,” said senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya in a news conference after the assassination. “It shall not be erased either by martyrdom or the death of a leader or 10 leaders. Whoever will carry the flag after Commander Ismail Haniyeh will walk the same path.”

That the assassination took place in Tehran — hours after an inauguration ceremony with some 110 foreign delegates amid heightened security — infuriated Iranian officials.

“The criminal, terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our territory and has caused our grief, but it has also prepared the ground for a severe punishment,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in response Wednesday.

“Following this bitter, tragic event which has taken place within the borders of the Islamic Republic, it is our duty to take revenge.”

Further exacerbating regional tensions was Israel’s drone strike Tuesday on a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in a residential building in Beirut that killed seven people — including two women and two children — and wounded 78, Lebanese officials said.

The attack, which left the building half destroyed in a Hezbollah-dominated neighborhood in a suburb of the Lebanese capital, may constitute a red line for Hezbollah. The group has threatened to bomb Israeli cities if Israel struck Lebanese cities.

The widening cross-border violence heightened fears that the Gaza conflict will ignite a broader Mideast war.

In Israel, reaction was mixed. While there was little outrage at the assassination of one of Hamas’ political leaders, many braced for the retaliatory fallout. There was particular anxiety among the hostages’ families who questioned Israel’s timing of the attack and feared another possible doorway to freedom for their relatives was now closed.

Longtime observers of Israeli politics blame Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders for effectively boosting the profile of radical Hamas over the more moderate Palestinian Authority and the Fatah party that leads it — both of which, unlike Hamas, recognized Israel’s right to exist and advocate for two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side.

Eliminating Haniyeh put the more extremist Sinwar “more at the center of gravity,” said Sarah Parkinson, a political scientist and international studies professor at Johns Hopkins University.

“Assassinations can cause friction, disarray, competition [in the targeted group],” she said, but they can also serve as “a way of elevating more extreme adversaries.”

Wilkinson reported from Washington and Bulos from Beirut.

The Trump and Harris campaigns mixed it up on X on Wednesday afternoon after the former president’s heated appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in Chicago, and the Republican vice presidential nominee blasted Vice President Harris as a “coward.”

“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency, while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said in a statement after the event.

“Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign,” Tyler continued. “It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10.”

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, fired back, saying the former president “walked right into the NABJ conference and showed he had the courage to take tough questions, while Kamala Harris continues to hide from any scrutiny or unfriendly media like the coward she is.”

1 OF THESE 5 DEMOCRATS COULD BE HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE

During the event, Trump clashed with ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, accusing her of asking a “nasty question” and referring to the Disney-owned network as “fake news.”

Trump participated in a Q&A with Scott, Semafor reporter Kadia Goba and Fox News Channel anchor Harris Faulkner. The event caused ripples before it began because many Black journalists objected to Trump even being invited in the first place. Once it began, Scott kicked things off by “addressing the elephant in the room.”

“A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today,” Scott said. “You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswomen of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. 

“You have used words like animal and rabid to describe Black district attorneys. You attack Black journalists, calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are, quote, stupid and racist. You’ve had dinner with a White supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So, my question, sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”

TRUMP CLASHES WITH ABC NEWS REPORTER OVER ‘NASTY QUESTION,’ BLASTS ‘FAKE NEWS NETWORK’ DURING HEATED Q&A

Trump shot back at Scott, saying he’s “never been asked a question in such a horrible manner.”

“I love the Black population of this country,” Trump said. “I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country, including employment, including opportunity zones, with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for Black workers and Black entrepreneurs. I’ve done so much, you know. And I say this, historically Black colleges and universities were out of money.”

“And let me go a step further,” Trump added. “I was invited here, and I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala. I was told my opponent was going to be here. It turned out my opponent isn’t here. You invited me on under false pretense.

“And then you were half an hour late, just so we understand. I have too much respect for you to be late. They couldn’t get their equipment working or something.”

2024 AD WARS: TRUMP, HARRIS RACE TO DEFINE VICE PRESIDENT

Former President Trump appears at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago on Wednesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“Mr. President, I would love if you could answer the question,” Scott said, again asking why Black voters should trust him for another term. 

“I think it’s a very nasty question,” Trump shot back. “I have answered the question. I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

Former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton attended NABJ conventions in the past, either as presidents or presidential candidates.

Trump posted on Truth Social following the NABJ event, saying of Scott, “The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!”

Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood and Landon Mion contributed to this report. 

Former President Trump made baseless assertions about Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity during a combative interview at a Black journalism conference Wednesday, while polls showed his opponent had notched significant gains in battleground states.

Trump’s question-and-answer session with three reporters at the annual convention of the National Assn. of Black Journalists grew heated from the start, when Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, rattled off a series of Trump’s inflammatory comments — including that former President Obama was not born in the U.S. — and asked why Black voters should trust him.

He responded by lambasting Scott for a “disgraceful” start, adding, “I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country.”

When Scott asked him about other Republican politicians’ comments that Harris was a “DEI hire,” Trump asked for her definition of DEI. He challenged her response that the acronym means “diversity, equity and inclusion,” before saying of Harris, “She was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn, she became a Black person.”

Harris, a Black and Asian American woman of Jamaican and Indian descent, was invited to speak at the convention but her campaign declined due to a scheduling conflict, according to NABJ. The association said it was planning a separate conversation with the vice president in September.

“Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said Wednesday.

When pressed by the ABC reporter to say why Black voters should trust him, Trump said he had already answered the question and added: “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

Throughout the panel, Trump complained that the interview started more than an hour late and that the sound system was not working properly. In a turn from his typically friendly rally crowds, Trump faced a roomful of Black journalists, who at turns laughed, gasped or jeered at his responses. One attendee walked out as he questioned Harris’s racial identify and another screamed, “Sir, have you no shame?”

The audience booed as he exited the stage.

“You have to really take your hat off to former President Trump for accepting the invitation to come but, outside of that, it was just a real train wreck,” said Charles Ward, a journalism professor at Morehouse College who attended the session. “Members really thought it would’ve been an opportunity to articulate something other than what we’ve heard on the campaign trail, and that was the same thing today — even though there were questions asked directly of him about his intentions with the Black community and we never got a full answer on that.“

Journalist Roland Martin listens as former President Trump speaks in Chicago.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Advertisement

Some of Trump’s supporters saw his performance Wednesday as proof of his tenacity in the face of a hostile crowd.

“President Trump flew to Chicago, took tough question after tough question from the press, and crushed it. Kamala didn’t have the guts to show up,” wrote Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley on social media.

Others watching the interview were put off by Trump’s meandering and at-times abrasive responses.

Hope Moses, 22, a Milwaukee native and graduate student at Northwestern University, said it was important for her to be in the room to bear witness as a student reporter and a young Black voter. Moses said she felt Trump had gone “a little bit off track.” It disturbed her to hear the former president acknowledge he did not know the details of the shooting of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman shot to death earlier this month by an Illinois sheriff’s deputy.

“I don’t even remember him offering his sympathies and really connecting with the audience and understanding that each of us could’ve been her.” Moses said. “Most people in the audience can agree that this was entertaining but wasn’t necessarily informative.”

Trump’s appearance elicited controversy before he even arrived, as many journalists condemned the organization’s decision to invite the former president. Karen Attiah, a columnist and global opinions editor with the Washington Post, announced Tuesday she was stepping down as co-chair of the convention.

“While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format,” Attiah said in a social media post.

Immediately following the interview, Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “ABC FAKE NEWS, ONE OF THE WORST IN AMERICA!”

“Today’s biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media will backfire massively,” Trump senior advisor Lynne Patton said in a statement. “You would think that the media would have learned something from their repeat episodes of fake outrage ever since President Trump first came down the escalator in 2015, but some just refuse to ‘get it.’ This will be their undoing in 2024.”

The Chicago event came as Harris continues to ride the wave of momentum that has propelled her for the past 10 days since President Biden stepped aside as the leading Democratic candidate for president. A groundswell of groups quickly coalesced to organize almost nightly online calls to recruit volunteers and raise millions of dollars for her campaign. Polls are beginning to show her impact.

A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, released Tuesday, shows Trump is still ahead by 4 points with registered voters in Pennsylvania and 2 points in North Carolina. But support for Harris is climbing in other crucial swing states — most notably in Michigan, where she leads by 11 points. In Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, she leads by 2 points. The poll showed the two candidates tied in Georgia.

Tuesday’s poll marks a contrast to an April survey from Bloomberg News/Morning Consult, which showed Biden trailing Trump in every state except Michigan, where Biden led by 2 points.

Former President Trump’s appearance at the NABJ came as some polls show a boost for Harris since she entered the race.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Advertisement

According to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Wednesday, the overwhelming majority of Democrats support Harris as the party’s new leading candidate, even if many aren’t entirely convinced of her ability to beat Trump. It found that about 80% of Democrats agree she would make a good president, with almost as many saying they’d be satisfied with her as the nominee.

But only 71% of Democrats believe Harris is likely to win the election, compared with 88% of Republicans who believe the same of Trump.

Harris is expected to name her running mate soon. Speculation focused on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after her campaign announced that she and “her future running mate” would campaign together next week, starting in Philadelphia. Seen as a top contender for the role, Shapiro could help Harris secure needed support in the battleground state.

Moore and Jennings reported from Chicago, Rainey and Pinho from Los Angeles.