During CNN’s overnight coverage of the reported assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh said that the assassination of “one of the more moderate figures” in the Hamas terrorist organization “is a pretty forthright and inflammatory move” by Israel and is arguably them ignoring “American bids for calm here and de-escalation.”
Walsh stated that while we don’t yet know exactly how the assassination was carried out, “certainly it shows Israel very much on its front foot here. They have said they would go after Hamas leaders in any eventuality. It shows them quite clearly unbowed — it’s — you might argue, by American bids for calm here and de-escalation. This is a pretty forthright and inflammatory move. Certainly, Haniyeh being one of the more moderate figures in Hamas, a proscribed organization by most Western governments.”
Later, he added that Haniyeh was “a key moderate, potentially” in the talks between Israel and Hamas that were “stalled, it seems, for the most part in recent weeks.”
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