More details are emerging about where, when and how Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday morning, July 31, with Hamas blaming Israel for the attack.
Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1200 people and took some 250 others hostage.
Israel often doesn’t comment when it comes to assassinations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency and has refused to comment on the allegations.
Hamas in a statement said Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of Iran’s new president”.
“Hamas declares to the great Palestinian people and the people of the Arab and Islamic nations and all the free people of the world, brother leader Ismail Ismail Haniyeh a martyr,” the statement said.
By Wednesday afternoon, Iran state-run news agency IRNA said that Haniyeh was attacked in Tehran, the capital using an “airborne guided projectile,” The attack occurred around 2 a.m. local time.
Haniyeh was in Iran for the Iranian president’s inauguration, and was staying in one of the residences for veterans in north Tehran, state-affiliated news outlet Fars said.
IRNA said further investigations were underway to determine the details of the operation and the position from which the projectile was fired.
The attack on the Hamas leader could spiral into an all out Middle-East war as Iran has threatened to revenge against Israel.
