Palestinians in Gaza display resilience following Hamas leader's assassination

As the assassination of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh raises concerns about ceasefire negotiations, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have nonetheless expressed resilience and said they expect new leaders to emerge.

Early Wednesday morning, Haniyeh's residence in Tehran was hit in an airstrike after he attended the inauguration of Iran's new president, resulting in the death of the high-ranking Hamas official and a bodyguard.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps of Iran says Haniyeh was killed by an "air-launched guided projectile" that struck the building. The attack happened just hours after Israel's strike on Beirut, which killed Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr.

Shafiq Daher, a resident in Gaza, described Haniyeh's assassination as a significant loss and said he expects a reaction from regional players.

"It's an irreparable loss, there will not be as humble a leader as Ismail Haniyeh. Secondly, I believe his killing will have a strong impact on the negotiations. We hope that there will be a strong response to his assassination, whether from Iran, Hezbollah or even from Gaza," he said.

Abu Odeh, another resident, highlighted the resilience of the Palestinian cause, insisting that new leaders always emerge.

"The Palestinian issue is always a birth of new leaders, whether Ismail Haniyeh or someone else was killed. During the past years they have assassinated many leaders in most of the resistance movements, not just Hamas, and despite that, new leaders were born. This is the characteristic of the Palestinian cause and the characteristic of the people of Gaza who live with that," Odeh said.

Palestinians in Gaza display resilience following Hamas leader's assassination

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship