Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary group, said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been assassinated in Tehran.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination, but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the group’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
Iran’s statement did not provide any details on the circumstances of Haniyeh’s death. The New York Times was the first to report the incident.
Iranian Presidency Office via AP
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, along with other officials from Hamas, Hezbollah and allied groups. Iran has not provided any details on the circumstances of Haniyeh’s death, and the Guards said the attack was under investigation.
Iranian state television analysts immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.
Israel itself did not immediately comment, but it often does not when it comes to assassinations carried out by its intelligence agency, the Mossad.
Haniyeh’s assassination comes after Israel made a rare strike The attack left at least 10 dead, including 11 injured, including 15…
Israel has been suspected of waging a years-long assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic program. In 2020, a prominent Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while riding in a car outside Tehran.
Haniyeh, the general political leader of Hamashad not been to Gaza for years and spends most of his time in Qatar, where Hamas has its main political office outside Gaza.
In April, three of Haniyeh’s sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike According to Hamas insiders and media, Haniyeh himself acknowledged the deaths. Hamas said the strike hit a vehicle near a home belonging to the Haniyeh family.
Some of Hamas’s top leaders are reportedly still in Gaza and are still on Israel’s wanted list. At the top of that list is Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader in the Gaza Strip and one of the founders of the terror group’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.
The White House did not immediately respond. The alleged assassination comes at a delicate time, as the Biden administration seeks to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and a deal to release the hostages.
CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome on Sunday to meet with senior Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials as part of the latest round of talks. Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is also in the region for talks with U.S. partners.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Israel has killed more than 39,360 Palestinians and wounded more than 90,900, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, whose tally does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
