Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard announced Wednesday, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Israel was immediately blamed for the killing after vowing to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the terror group's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state, which killed 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others, according to the Associated Press.
Haniyeh was in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was sworn in amid chants of “Death to America, Israel.”
On Tuesday morning, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted on social media platform X that he met with Haniyah and the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah.
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Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, speaks to reporters after his meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 2021. (AP Agency)
Iran has not provided details on how Haniyeh died. The incident is under investigation.
Iranian state television analysts immediately blamed Israel for the killing.
Israel had no immediate comment, but it does not normally comment publicly on killings carried out by its intelligence agency, the Mossad.
“The fact that such a high-ranking Hamas leader was killed on Iranian soil was an added bonus for Israel, particularly directly after its participation in the inauguration ceremony of the Islamic Republic's new president,” Lisa Daftari, a Middle East analyst and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News.
“It sends a clear message that Israel does not differentiate between the Islamic Republic and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah.”
“We have seen Israel carry out very targeted and strategic attacks against key actors in the Islamic Republic, such as nuclear scientists,” Daftari continued. “We have also seen Israel carry out targeted attacks against weapons depots and other critical infrastructure in Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
“Given the numerous threats surrounding Israel, it has been forced to use its military and intelligence capabilities to identify direct threats and strategically eliminate them. At this point, we assume that Haniyeh's assassination was carried out according to the same calculations.”
Hamas said Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after participating in the inauguration of Iran's new president.”
“Hamas declares to the great Palestinian people and to the people of the Arab and Islamic nations and to all free peoples of the world that brother leader Ismail Haniyeh is a martyr,” the statement said.
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President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh at the start of their meeting at the president's office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Agency)
The group, in another statement, quoted Haniyeh as saying that the Palestinian cause has “costs” and “we are ready for those costs: martyrdom for the sake of Palestine, for the sake of God Almighty and for the sake of the dignity of this nation.”
Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip five years ago and has been living in exile in Qatar. Hamas' top leader in Gaza is Yehya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack on Israel.
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In April, an Israeli airstrike killed three of Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandchildren in Gaza.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded in the Gaza war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, although the count does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
