Iran says Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran | Wilnesh News

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards said earlier on Wednesday that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been assassinated in Tehran, with Hamas blaming Israel for the attack.

Israel vows to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders Attack on Israel on October 7 1,200 people were killed and about 250 people were taken hostage.

An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel often does not do this in the context of assassinations carried out by the Mossad intelligence agency.

Hamas said Haniyeh “was killed in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.”

“Hamas declares its brotherly leader Ismail Ismail Haniyeh a martyr to the great people of Palestine, the peoples of Arab and Islamic countries and all free peoples of the world,” the brief statement said.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and went into exile in Qatar. The top leader of Hamas in Gaza is Yehya Sinwar, who planned the October 7 attack.

Haniyeh in Tehran Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian A swearing-in ceremony was held on Tuesday. Iran has not disclosed details of how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guards said they were investigating the attack.

Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House. The apparent assassination comes at a volatile moment as the Biden administration tries to press Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns met with senior Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials in Rome on Sunday for the latest round of talks. Separately, White House Middle East and North Africa coordinator Brett McGurk is holding talks with U.S. partners in the region.

Israel is suspected of carrying out a years-long campaign of assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists and others linked to its atomic program. In 2020, Iran’s top military nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while driving in a car on the outskirts of Tehran.

Since the October attacks, more than 39,360 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,900 injured in Israel’s war against Hamas, according to Gaza’s health ministry, whose statistics do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.