The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday morning (31), an attack that generated threats of revenge against Israel and further fueled concerns that the conflict in Gaza could escalate into a larger war in the Middle East.
The Palestinian Islamic militant group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed Haniyeh’s death. The Guard stated that it occurred hours after he attended the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president.
Although the attack has been widely attributed to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not take responsibility and said it would not comment on the assassination.
Haniyeh was killed by a missile that struck him “directly” in a state guesthouse where he was staying, said Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, at a press conference in Tehran, citing witnesses who were with Haniyeh. “Now we are waiting for a complete investigation by our Iranian brothers,” Al-Hayya said.
Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, was the face of Hamas’s international diplomacy as the war triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 escalated in Gaza. He was involved in internationally mediated indirect negotiations to reach a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
The assassination occurred less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Two Lebanese security sources said on Wednesday that the body of Hezbollah’s operations chief, Fuad Shukr, was found in the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The recent events appear to delay any prospects for an imminent ceasefire agreement in the nearly 10-month war in Gaza between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas.
The armed wing of Hamas stated in a communiqué that Haniyeh’s assassination “would take the battle to new dimensions and have significant repercussions.” Promising retaliation, Iran declared three days of national mourning and stated that the U.S. bore responsibility due to its support for Israel.
Source: Reuters