Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran

RIYADH: The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated in Iran, the Palestinian group said.

Iran’s state television made the announcement of the killing early on Wednesday.

A statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that Haniyeh and a security guard had been ambushed in their place of residence, and an investigation is now underway.

Haniyeh, who was the head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, traveled to Iran for the swearing in ceremony of the reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian.

The 62-year-old Palestinian leader had earlier met Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said : “This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve fake goals. We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives.”

“Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons. Hamas will continue on this path regardless of the sacrifices and we are confident of victory.”

Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthis, said: “Targeting Ismail Haniyeh is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”

Israel has promised to wipe out Hamas after the group conducted a deadly raid into settlements outside the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.

Israel soon after launched a devastating military assault in Gaza and has since killed over 40,000 people, mainly civilians.

Both sides have been trying to negotiate a hostage release agreement, which would include a cessation of fighting, with the help of the US and regional negotiators.

The assassination comes amid an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which was blamed for an attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights which killed 12 children on the weekend.

On Tuesday night, Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, saying that it had killed Fuad Shukr, head of Hezbollah’s military operations room, who Israel said was responsible for the attack in the Golan Heights, an accusation the Lebanese group denies.

Israel, which has not yet commented on the killing of Haniyeh, has previously carried out assassinations in Iran on figures key to the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

In 2021, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

But since the war in Gaza, Israel has been carrying out targeted attacks on key Hamas and IRGC figures, including Saleh Al-Arouri, a leader in the Palestinian group.

In April, Iran said its consulate in Damascus was destroyed and a top general killed in an attack Tehran blamed on Israel.

Iran soon after launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, but they were all shot down. Israel hit back by attacking sites in Isfahan.

Further escalation between the two sides had been avoided through diplomacy, but Israel has continued to attack Iranian affiliates in Syria.

The scale of Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks has been condemned, with the International Court of Justice agreeing that there may be a possible case that the country has engaged in acts of genocide.

Israel has also been accused of collective punishment and using starvation as a weapon in the fight against the militant group.