Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when his residence was attacked in Tehran, confirmed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a statement. Haniyeh was in Tehran to meet with the Supreme Leader and attend the new president’s inauguration.
The IRGC’s Public Relations Department announced that the attack took place early Wednesday and that an investigation is underway to determine the cause. The statement expressed condolences to the people of Palestine, the Muslim community, and the fighters of the Resistance Front for the loss of the Hamas leader.
The day before the incident, Haniyeh had attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president and met with Iran’s Supreme Leader.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination, but suspicion quickly fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the group’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and resulted in around 250 hostages being taken.
On April 10, an Israeli attack in northern Gaza killed three sons of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh confirmed the deaths of his children, Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad, along with several of his grandchildren, in an interview.
Following the October 7 terror attack, Israel has been fighting against the Hamas in Gaza. The whole Gaza has turned into the battlefield with thousands of people killed and lakhs of Palestinians displaced from the region.