Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran in alleged Israeli strike

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran along with one of his bodyguards, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The assassination occurred at Haniyeh’s residence in the Iranian capital, coinciding with his attendance at the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian state television reported that an investigation into the assassination is ongoing, and the results will be announced soon.

Hamas’ response

Hamas quickly issued a statement mourning Haniyeh, referring to his death as a “cowardly act” and vowing to take revenge on Israel. “Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran,” the statement said.

Israel’s comments

In the first comment by an Israeli official, Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu says Hamas leader Ismail “Haniyeh’s death makes the world better”. The far-right minister insulted the Hamas leader, saying, “No more fictitious peace/surrender agreements.”

Israeli army says “We do not comment on these reports” in response to an Anadolu Agency correspondent’s question on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Immediate reactions and suspicions

While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination, suspicion fell on Israel. Analysts on Iranian state television began blaming Israel for the attack, and Israel itself did not comment immediately, which is typical when its Mossad intelligence agency is involved in such operations.

Israel has previously been implicated in a series of assassinations, targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with Iran’s atomic program.

Who was Ismail Haniyeh?

Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of the Political Bureau of Hamas, was known as the overall leader of the group, despite questions about his authority over Hamas in Gaza. He lived in Qatar but had deep roots in Hamas’s radical operations since the late 1980s. Haniyeh was arrested several times by Israeli authorities. After his release from jail in 1992, he was exiled to southern Lebanon along with other Hamas leaders. He returned to Gaza a year later and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the head of the office of Hamas’s leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 1997.

Ties with Iran

Haniyeh played a crucial role in building up Hamas’ fighting capacity by nurturing ties with Iran. He traveled to Tehran to meet Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in early November, where Khamenei indicated that Iran would not enter the war as it was not informed about it in advance. Haniyeh also attended the funeral of Iran’s former President Ebrahim Raisi, who was a significant supporter of Palestine and who died in a helicopter crash.