Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an attack on his residence in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement.
The statement emphasized that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards “accepted martyrdom.” An investigation into the incident is underway and its results will be published later, the IRGC promised.
The Palestinian Hamas movement said the politburo chief had attended the inauguration ceremony of new Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian the previous day. The group called the attack on Haniyeh “treacherous” and blamed it on “Zionists.”
According to an Al-Hadas TV source, Haniyeh was killed “literally in bed” when a missile hit his residence.
Israeli army officials declined to comment to CNN on the news of the death of the head of the Hamas politburo. The Israel Defense Forces said they “do not respond to foreign media reports.”
Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Amihai Eliyahu said what happened was “the right way to cleanse the world of this filth.” “Haniyeh’s death makes the world a little better,” the minister said.
During a meeting in Tehran with the Iranian president, Haniyeh called on Iran to continue supporting military groups that help Hamas in its war against Israel. In turn, the Iranian president promised that the military conflict in the Gaza Strip “will end with the destruction of the Zionist regime.”
In April, Haniyeh claimed that an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed three of his sons, as well as several grandchildren. The strike hit the Shati refugee camp, Al Jazeera TV channel specified. In total, “at least 60 members of his family” have been killed since the war with Israel began, a Hamas leader claimed.
Haniyeh served as prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority from 2006 to 2007. In 2018, the US State Department recognized him as a terrorist. Since 2012, Haniyeh lived in the Qatari capital Doha, where the headquarters of the political wing of Hamas is located. In June of this year, The National News quoted Iraqi diplomats as saying that the movement’s leadership had moved to Iraq.
Israel’s war with Hamas began in October 2023 after Palestinian militants attacked Israeli settlements, killing more than 1,000 people and taking about 200 more civilians hostage. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip, which is still ongoing. According to Palestinian authorities, nearly 38,000 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip by the end of June.
