Middle East

In the Middle East, two assassinations in less than 24 hours could transform the region. Israel claimed responsibility for one. It has no comment on the other.

First, an Israeli attack in Lebanon killed a leader of the militant group Hezbollah. Just hours later, the political leader of Hamas was killed in Iran.

The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was attending the swearing-in for Iran's new reformist president. Hamas says Haniyeh was killed by a rocket fired into his room at an official residency. Hamas and Iran both blame Israel for the attack.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke after the two killings, he did not claim responsibility for the attack in Tehran. He did describe the Israeli strike in Beirut as a crushing blow.

In Washington, White House spokesman John Kirby expressed concern the assassinations could result in an escalation of the conflicts already playing out.

Two assassinations in the Middle East have the potential to start a violent chain of retaliations. Will they?

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Ismail Haniyeh, who was the Palestinian group’s political leader, was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Hamas blamed his assassination on Israel.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about the ramifications of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

A large blast rocked southern Beirut after Israel vowed to strike at Hezbollah for a rocket attack in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on the Lebanon Border.

The Israeli military says it "eliminated" a top Hezbollah commander in a suburb of Lebanon's capital in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

The pier built by the U.S. military to get aid into Gaza cost $230 million. It broke apart early on, and critics say it did little to help people in Gaza.

Israel agreed to allow 150 seriously ill and injured children in Gaza to leave for medical treatment. But after an attack blamed on Lebanese Hezbollah, Israel's prime minister suspended that approval.

A rocket struck a soccer field near the Lebanon border this weekend killing 12 children and wounding more. The community hit is Druze and, though Arab, can claim Israeli citizenship.