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, travelled 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.
The prime minister of Qatar, which has acted as a mediator in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, suggested on Wednesday that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could jeopardize the talks.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.
“Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life.”
Details of Assassination
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh — the face of Hamas’s international diplomacy as the war set off by the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza.
Haniyeh was killed around 2 a.m. (2200 GMT) on Wednesday, Iranian media reported. He was staying at “a special residence” for war veterans in north Tehran.
“Further investigations are underway that will be announced soon,” it said.
NourNews, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Haniyeh’s residence was hit by an airborne projectile. The assassination was “a dangerous gamble to undermine Tehran’s deterrence,” it said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Israeli military said it was conducting a situational assessment but had not issued any new security guidelines for civilians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas’ rival, condemned the killing of Haniyeh and Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank called for a general strike and mass demonstrations.
Possible consequence
Hamas said it would continue the path it was following in the Gaza war, saying: “We are confident of victory.”
The prime minister of Qatar, which has acted as a mediator in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, suggested that the killing could jeopardize efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.
The news, which came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, appears to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza war. At the same time, the risk of a war between Israel and Hezbollah has grown following the strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze village on Saturday and the subsequent killing of the senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
A member of parliament from Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said that his group would be ready to fight a war with Israel, after an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s top military commander.
The attack on Iranian soil and death of its close ally will put pressure on Tehran to react against Israel, which has been hunting Hamas leaders since the Islamist group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel launched a relentless ground and air offensive in the densely populated coastal enclave that has killed more than 39,400 people, according to Gaza health officials, and left more than 2 million facing a humanitarian crisis.
The assassination could also encourage Iran’s proxies in the Middle East who support Hamas — Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq — to seek revenge.
Iran’s top security body is expected to meet to decide Iran’s strategy in reaction to the death of Haniyeh, a close ally of Tehran, said a source with knowledge of the meeting.
Iran will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act” of assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday.
