Riyadh: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, Palestinian group says
Iranian state television announced the killing early Wednesday.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Haniyeh and his security guards were ambushed at their residence and that an investigation was underway.
Haniyeh, who heads the political office of the Islamic opposition group Hamas, traveled to Iran to attend the inauguration of reformist President Masoud Peseshkian.
The 62-year-old Palestinian leader had previously met with Pesheshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The Israeli assassination of Brother Haniyeh is another escalation of violence aimed at undermining the will of Hamas and the will of the people and achieving false goals,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official.
“Hamas is an idea and an institution, not a person. Hamas will continue on this path no matter what the sacrifices, and we are confident that we will win.”
“The attack on Ismail Haniyeh is a grave terrorist crime and a grave violation of the law and ideals,” said Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi group in Yemen.
Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas after the group launched attacks on several positions outside the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking hostages back to the Palestinian territories.
Shortly after, Israel launched a massive military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has since killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians.
The two sides have been trying to negotiate a hostage release deal that includes an end to the fighting, with help from US and regional negotiators.
The assassination comes amid a deepening conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group, which has been blamed for a deadly attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children over the weekend.
Israel attacked a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night, claiming to have killed Fouad Shukr, the head of Hezbollah's military operations room, whom Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack in the Golan Heights, a charge denied by the Lebanese group.
Israel, which has yet to comment on Haniyeh's killing, has previously carried out assassinations of top figures in Iran's nuclear program.
In 2021, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading Iranian nuclear scientist.
Since the war in Gaza, Israel has carried out attacks on prominent Hamas and IRGC figures, including Palestinian leader Saleh al-Arouri.
In April, Iran said its consulate in Damascus had been destroyed and a top general was killed in a Tehran attack that it blamed on Israel.
Shortly after, Iran launched missiles at Israel, but they were all shot down, prompting Israel to retaliate by attacking its base in Isfahan.
Escalation of tensions between the two sides has been avoided through diplomacy, but Israel continues to attack Iranian-allied forces in Syria.
The scale of Israel's military response to Hamas attacks has been condemned, with the International Court of Justice agreeing that there is a possible case that the country has committed genocide.
Israel has also been accused of mass punishment and using starvation as a weapon in its fight against terrorist groups.
