Tehran: Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
The statement gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed. State TV reported on his death Wednesday.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.Credit: AP
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
In a statement, Hamas mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack. Israel itself did not immediately comment but it often doesn’t when it comes to assassination carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency.
Israel is suspected of running a years-long assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic program.
Israeli airstrikes killed three of his sons in April. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed at that time.
Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh at the time accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder”.
More to come
Source Agencies
