Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran on Wednesday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in separate statements, according to Reuters. It was the second major assassination attributed to Israel in just hours, following a strike in Beirut that killed a Hezbollah military leader.
Hamas says it is a “serious escalation” and vows revenge. Avenging the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is “Tehran’s duty” because it took place in the Iranian capital, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also said on Wednesday.
While Israel has yet to officially comment on Ismail Haniyeh’s killing, former Israeli military officials praised the two operations targeting Hezbollah and Hamas chiefs on national television Wednesday morning, even as they raised doubts about Israel’s long-term strategy, writes the New York Times.
Sources in the Saudi Al Hadath station said a guided missile hit Haniyeh’s private residence in Tehran. The news outlet reports that the missile hit the building at around 2:00am local time (23:30 BST).
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran is an “act of cowardice that will not go unpunished,” senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted as saying by Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas-run television station. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said: “The targeting of Ismail Haniyeh is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said for his part: “This assassination of brother Haniyeh by the Israeli occupation is a serious escalation that seeks to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve false goals. We confirm that this escalation will not achieve its goals. Hamas is a concept and an institution and not people. Hamas will continue on this path regardless of the sacrifices and we are confident of victory.”
Iran will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor and pride and make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act” of assassinating Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, President Masoud Pezeshkian also said on Wednesday.
Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a “treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”, according to a statement issued by the Islamist faction, which mourns the death of its leader, according to Reuters.
“Brother, our leader, Mujahideen Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after his participation in the inauguration of the new Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian,” Hamas announced in a statement.
“Ismail’s residence Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Hamas, was hit in Tehran and, as a result of this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Corps’ Sepah news site. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Haniyeh traveled to Tehran to witness the swearing-in of new Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian in front of Parliament.
Iran, an ally of Hamas, has made support for the Palestinian cause a central element of its foreign policy to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Massoud Pezeshkian, a reformer, denounced “Israel’s crimes in Palestinian territory” while Iranians attending the ceremony chanted “Death to Israel! Death to America!”.
Ten family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed, on June 25, in an Israeli attack in the Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza City.
Listed as a terrorist by the US and Israel, considered pragmatic and relatively moderate compared to other more radical Hamas figures, Ismail Haniyeh played a major role in strengthening his organization’s fighting capacity, in part by cultivating relations with Iran. He was elected head of the political wing in 2017 before leaving Gaza for exile in Qatar two years later. From exile, he became the face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy, shuttling between Turkey, Iran and Qatar, joining a group of Hamas leaders holed up in Doha. Haniyeh was considered a suitable intermediary in communicating with hardline figures such as Yahya Sinwar of Gaza.
US Lloyd Austin: “I don’t think war is inevitable”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday that he does not believe a full-scale war in the Middle East is inevitable and that the United States is trying to calm rising tensions in the region. “I don’t think war is inevitable. I stand by this opinion. I think there’s always room and opportunity for diplomacy,” Austin told reporters during a visit to the Philippine, according to Reuters.