Iran’s government has accused Israel of assassinating senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a missile strike near Tehran, raising fears of a broader regional war in the Middle East. According to Iranian media reports, Haniyeh was killed, along with his bodyguard, when a guided missile slammed into a residence north of the Iranian capital where he was staying for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Before his assassination, Haniyeh played a central role in talks to exchange hostages and to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel.

Israeli officials have not yet confirmed any involvement in Haniyeh’s killing; however, the Israeli Government Press Office posted a photo of Haniyeh with the word “eliminated” over his face. The office later took down the photo.

Iran’s supreme leader condemned the assassination and promised “harsh punishment” against Israel, in a statement read on Iranian state television.

IRIB News anchor: “The supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, emphasized, 'The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime, with this action, has paved the way for severe punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to avenge the blood of he who was martyred in the land of the Islamic Republic of Iran.'”

Hamas said Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral will be held in Tehran on Thursday morning before his body is transferred to the Qatari capital of Doha for burial on Friday.

The killing of Haniyeh came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed it had assassinated Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in Beirut. The strike killed three civilians, including a woman, a girl and a boy, and wounded 74 others. Hezbollah confirmed Shukr had been in the building at the time, but the group has not confirmed his fate. Israel had accused Shukr of being involved in Saturday’s rocket attack that killed 12 Druze children in the occupied Golan Heights. 

Palestinian rescue workers in the Gaza Strip have collected dozens of bodies from the ruins of Khan Younis after Israeli forces devastated the city during an eight-day ground assault. Health officials report the invasion killed 255 people and wounded more than 300 others. Dozens more remain missing.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Office warns in a new report that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails face widespread torture, sexual violence and brutal treatment. The U.N. found at least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 7; others face torture, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, starvation, electric shocks and the release of dogs. The U.N. says most of the Palestinian men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders jailed by Israel are being held without charge or trial in deplorable conditions.

In Washington, D.C., dozens of interfaith activists on Tuesday disrupted a gathering on Capitol Hill by members of the lobby group Christians United for Israel — one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the U.S. with some 11 million members. The group’s annual summit largely focuses on advocating for increased U.S. military support to Israel. Activists blocked a bus transporting CUFI members from National Harbor in Maryland to Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, in a separate action, several activists took to the water in kayaks at National Harbor, just outside the hotel and conference site where CUFI members gathered. Protesters held a 28-foot banner that read ”CUFI kills” and Palestinian flags, as activists also denounced CUFI’s ties to white nationalism.

The government of France has formally recognized Morocco’s claims of sovereignty over the northwest African territory of Western Sahara. The decision announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday is a major victory for Moroccan King Mohammed VI and a setback to Western Sahara’s Indigenous people, the Sahrawi, who’ve fought for decades to organize a U.N.-backed referendum on independence. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and international law. Over the past four decades, thousands of Sahrawi activists have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation. 

Ukraine’s Air Force says it has repelled a major Russian drone attack, describing it as one of the largest aerial assaults in months. Officials in Kyiv say it was the seventh Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital city this month alone.

The Biden administration has pledged a half-billion dollars in new military aid to the government of the Philippines as the U.S. and its allies in the Asia-Pacific continue to ratchet up tensions with China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the deal after meeting in Manila with Philippines leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the presidential palace. Outside their talks, protesters burned a U.S. flag and condemned the military agreement.

Mong Palatino: “We believe it will further the military intervention of the U.S. in the Philippines. It will lead to intensified basing of the U.S. in the Philippines. It will heighten tension in the region. The U.S. is putting forward an agenda that is contrary to our stand for peace and freedom in our country.”

Nearly 1,000 Indigenous children died while being forced to attend U.S. federal government boarding schools that sought to exterminate Native American identity, language and culture. Those were the final findings of a groundbreaking report published Tuesday by the Interior Department, which for the first time in its history accounts for the U.S. government’s role in the gruesome assimilation practices enforced at the schools. The report, which calls for a formal apology from the federal government, was commissioned by the first Indigenous U.S. Cabinet member, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents were forced to attend boarding school starting at the age of 8.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland: “The Department of the Interior, the very Cabinet agency created to assimilate Indigenous peoples, released a historic investigative report detailing the impact, trauma and damage caused by federal Indian boarding schools from 1819 through the 1970s. This trauma is not new to Indigenous people. One of the reasons I launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative was to ensure that this important story was told, that all of America knows of the intergenerational impacts of these policies, and that we, as a nation, take steps to heal from them.”

In Illinois, pressure is mounting for Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell to resign over the fatal police shooting of 36-year-old Sonya Massey. Massey’s family joined civil rights attorney Ben Crump in Chicago Tuesday to demand justice, after a local police union announced it would not continue to challenge the firing of former deputy Sean Grayson, who has also been charged with first-degree murder for killing Massey. The police union had previously represented Grayson and tried to get him reinstated. Crump spoke Tuesday as he called for police reform legislation in Massey’s name.

Benjamin Crump: “We must continue to say her name, Sonya Massey, because Black women who are killed by police officers in the United States of America rarely, rarely get justice.”

Meanwhile, CNN reports a newly surfaced audio recording reveals officer Grayson was previously reprimanded at another agency for filing an inaccurate report about a traffic stop and pursuit, with a superior officer warning Grayson his report could have amounted to “official misconduct” and that he had lied.

Prisoners in Florida at the largest federal prison complex in the United States say they launched a hunger strike Sunday to demand external intervention to address health and safety violations, abuse of power by guards, and denied visits. A man incarcerated at the Coleman Low satellite camp told Democracy Now! 30 people were moved to solitary confinement in response to the hunger strike, and said they have since paused the protest. This comes as a Department of Justice investigation of Coleman led to more than a dozen arrests last week, including corrections officers charged with smuggling in drugs.

Vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris rallied thousands of supporters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, where she defended her support for harsher immigration and border enforcement policies. Harris compared her record to Donald Trump’s and blamed the Republican presidential nominee for tanking a bipartisan bill that would have further militarized the southern border.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “Our administration worked on the most significant border security bill in decades. Some of the most conservative Republicans in Washington, D.C., supported the bill. Even the Border Patrol endorsed it. It was all set to pass, but at the last minute, Trump directed his allies in the Senate to vote it down.”

Supporters: “Boo!” 

Vice President Kamala Harris: “Right.”

Harris has touted recent endorsements by more than a dozen mayors in Arizona, a border state, including that of Republican John Giles of Mesa, who praised Harris’ backing of the failed bipartisan bill. Immigration advocates say the legislation would have further eroded the rights of asylum seekers.

Members of the National Association of Black Journalists are protesting their organization’s decision to invite Donald Trump to the stage when the NABJ holds its annual convention and career fair in Chicago today. On Tuesday, Washington Post editor Karen Attiah stepped down as co-chair of the NABJ’s convention, citing its decision to have Trump interviewed at the forum by three NABJ journalists. Bobby Henry, the chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents over 250 African American-owned newspapers and media companies, condemned the NABJ’s invitation to Trump, writing, “His divisive rhetoric and actions have harmed marginalized communities, particularly the Black community. Allowing [Trump] a platform at this event undermines the NABJ’s values of inclusion and solidarity and risks normalizing his damaging behavior.”