“A Zionist attack…”: Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh Assassinated in Iran’s Capital.

Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of Islamist group Hamas that runs the Palestinian territory of Gaza has been ‘assassinated’ after his residence was targeted in Iran’s Tehran, confirmed a statement released by a Hamas on Wednesday."Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president," read the statement. The Hamas Chief was in the Iranian capital Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards from Hamas confirmed the news about Ismail Haniyeh’s death. "With condolences to the heroic nation of Palestine and the Islamic nation and combatants of the Resistant Front and the noble nation of Iran, this morning the residence of Mr. Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of the Islamic Resistance of Hamas, was hit in Tehran, and following this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred", read a statement from Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Hamas pinned the blame on Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, calling it a “grave escalation”. "This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas", said Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official. The Iranian State Television Analysts also accused Israel for the attack.

"This is the right way to clean the world from this filth,” said Israeli Minister Amichay Eliyahu in a post on X reacting to Haniyeh’s killing.

Haniyeh, considered as a pragmatist, was elected the head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 and had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian presidents. He joined Hamas in the year 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which lasted until 1993.

A conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas launched an air offensive on Israel that resulted in the death of around 1200 people who were mostly civilians. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, Israel’s subsequent military retaliation killed around 40,000 Palestinians and leaving more than 90,000 wounded.​