Newsman: Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and his body guard were killed after attending the swearing-in inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, according to reports from Hamas and Iranian state media. Hamas and Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed Ismail Haniyeh’s death in an announcement Wednesday morning.
In a statement, Hamas said its leader was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran,” and vowed revenge through “harsh and painful response” in retaliation.
In recent months, from exile in Qatar., Haniyeh was playing a leading role in negotiations to reach a ceasefire with Israel in exchange for freeing hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, where they have been for 10 months.
The Israeli Government Press Office posted a photo of Ismail Haniyeh with the word “eliminated” over the Hamas political leader’s head. The post, which had been live for more than an hour, was then removed Wednesday morning.
“Eliminated: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas highest- ranking leader, was killed in a precise strike in Tehran, Iran,” the office said in a post on its official Facebook page.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatolla Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Wednesday morning that Iran considers it its “duty to take revenge” for the assassination. “With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself,” he said.
Haniyeh had been a central part of the inauguration ceremony, hugging and kissing Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The immediate reaction from Tehran came from foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani, who said the “pure blood” of Haniyeh “will never be wasted” and vowed the “unbreakable bond” between Iran and the Palestinians would only be strengthened.
Haniyeh’s murder in Iran came only hours after Israeli forces said they had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut — in retaliation for an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, that struck a football pitch, killing 12 children and youths from the Druze community.
Israel has been accused of carrying out several assassinations inside Iran in league with anti-regime resistance fighters over the past years, including a series of attacks on top nuclear scientists.
Haniyeh, who was one of Hamas’ top leaders for nearly two decades, was in Iran for the inauguration of the country’s new president. Iranian state media said Haniyeh died when a rocket struck a facility for veterans in northern Tehran.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which the militant group killed some 1,200 Israelis and took around 250 others hostage, Israel’s leaders have vowed revenge on Hamas officials. In the 10 months since, Israel’s airstrikes and ground operations have killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, the Gazan authorities say.
Israel has a long track record of killing Hamas’ leadership. In 2004, Israel carried out an airstrike in Gaza killing Hamas’ then-leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The same year, it assassinated one of the militant group’s founders, Ahmed Yassin, in Gaza City.
The Biden administration was not warned of the attack against Haniyeh ahead of time, nor did it have any part in it, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. “This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken told broadcaster Channel News Asia from Singapore.
Germany’s foreign office called on “all actors to exercise maximum restraint,” adding that “the logic of mutual retaliatory strikes is a mistake.”
“The chance of a hostage agreement and a ceasefire in Gaza must not be squandered now,” the spokesperson said.
