Tel Aviv: Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of the Islamist group Hamas that runs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, has been ‘assassinated’ in Iran's Tehran, a Hamas statement confirmed on July 31. Haniyeh, 62, was killed alongside one of his bodyguards at his residence in the Iranian capital while he was in the town to attend Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian's swearing-in ceremony on July 30.
Haniyeh's death was also confirmed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRCG). "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," the IRGC said in a statement.
Haniyeh's reported assassination came just hours after he met Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Photo courtesy: X@Khamenei_m)
While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, analysts on Iranian state television immediately began accusing Israel. The Hamas statement, too, pinned the blame on Israel, saying that Haniyeh was killed in an ‘airstrike’ on his residence.
Reacting to the news, Israel War Room posted a video on X showing Haniyeh celebrating the October 7 attack on Israeli citizens. "This was Hamas chief Haniyeh's reaction to the Hamas massacre on October 7. He's not celebrating anymore," it captioned the video.
A war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 last year, the day on which the latter carried out attacks in Israel, killing more than 1200 people and taking around 250 as hostage. In the subsequent retaliation, around 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
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# Who is Ismail Haniyeh? # Fallout of Haniyeh's death |
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Israel claims killing senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who "has the blood of many Israelis on his hands. Tonight, we have shown that the blood of our people has a price and that there is no place out of reach for our forces to this end." Notably, Fuad Shukr was sanctioned by the United States in 2015. Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Golan attack but said the group fired rockets at a military target in the region, which is occupied by Israel in 1967. |
