South Africa, on Thursday, condemned the targeted assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Pretoria said it is concerned that the killing of Haniyeh and the continuous targeting of civilians in Gaza will further spiral the already tense situation in the entire region.
"Any form of extrajudicial killing is a blatant violation of these principles and extra judicial killings of this nature have a destabilising effect. It is crucial that the perpetrators of such actions must be brought to justice," the top South African diplomat said.
Lamola said Haniyeh’s assassination occurred in the context of the nine-month slack in Gaza, where the ongoing bombardment has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and turned most of the Territory into ruins.
He said Haniyeh was an integral member of the negotiating team, working with mediators to secure a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire and bring the war to Gaza to an end.
He said Israeli’s continued Occupation, destruction of infrastructure, collective punishment and extrajudicial assassinations would make the realisation of a peaceful solution in the Middle East much more difficult to achieve.
Pretoria reiterated its view that the international community must act immediately to end the conflict that continues since the 7 October Hamas incursion.