Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claims that Hamas will survive despite the leader Yahya Sinwar being killed.
"The loss of him is, of course, painful for the resistance movement", says the Ayatollah in a first statement on his website after Sinwar's death.
"But it will not collapse because Sinwar has become a martyr", he continues.
Khamenei emphasizes that "Hamas lives and will continue to do so".
The 61-year-old Sinwar, also known as "the butcher from Khan Yunis", was killed in an Israeli attack in Tel Sultan in Rafah in southern Gaza on Wednesday.