Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the wee hours of Wednesday in Iran, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas, a situation that could possibly deepens fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
Haniyeh was one of the most public figure who headed up the group’s political operations while living in exile.
In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of targeting Haniyeh and his bodyguard in a “strike” on where he was staying in Tehran, following his participation in Tuesday’s inauguration of the new Iranian president.
Also, it was the second high-profile assassination attributed to Israel in a matter of hours after an airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military leader.
There was no immediate comment on the Tehran strike from Israeli authorities.
Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, has been the face of the Palestinian terror group’s international diplomacy as the war triggered by the attack has raged in the Gaza Strip, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
He is the most senior Hamas official killed since the war started, Times Of Israel reported.
State run media IRNA said the strike happened at around 2am local time involving an “airborne guided projectile.” State-affiliated Fars said he was staying in one of the special residences for veterans in north Tehran.
The killing comes at an especially fraught time for the Middle East, with escalating confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah threatening to expand into a wider regional war and as Hamas continues to battle Israel’s military in Gaza amid an unfolding and catastrophic humanitarian crisis.