Washington:

Iran on Tuesday denounced what it termed Israel’s “brazen admission” of having killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this year, accusing the country of having carried out a “heinous crime” and defending its missile-strike response.

“This brazen admission marks the first time the Israeli regime has openly confessed to its responsibility for this heinous crime,” said Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani in a letter addressed to the UN secretary-general.

On Monday, Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz acknowledged his country was responsible for the killing, the first time an official admission had been made.

Haniyeh, who was seen as leading Hamas’s negotiation efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, was killed in a guesthouse in Tehran on July 31, reportedly by an explosive device that had been placed by Israeli operatives weeks before.

Until Monday, Israel had never admitted to killing Haniyeh, but Iran and Hamas had attributed the Hamas political leader’s death to the nation.

In October, Iran said it fired 200 missiles at Israel, an apparent response to the killing. Israel said most of the projectiles were intercepted either by its own air defenses or by allies’ air forces.

On Tuesday, Iranian UN Ambassador Iravani termed Israel’s killing of Haniyeh a “heinous terrorist act,” adding that Katz’s statement showed Iran was justified in striking Israel in retaliation.

“It also reaffirms the legitimacy and legality of Iran’s defensive response on 1 October 2024, as well as Iran’s consistent position that the occupying and terrorist regime of Israel remains the most serious threat to regional and international peace and security.”

On September 27, Israel killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut bombing, which was followed by the killing of Haniyeh’s successor Yahya Sinwar on October 16 in Gaza.

Israeli officials say Sinwar masterminded the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, which sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed tens of thousands and reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Iranians follow a truck, center, carrying the coffins of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard during their funeral ceremony at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, on August 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israel’s Defense Minister has confirmed that Israel assassinated Hamas’ top leader last summer and is threatening to take similar action against the leadership of the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

The comments by Israel Katz appeared to mark the first time that Israel has acknowledged killing Ismail Haniyeh, who died in an explosion in Iran in July. Israel was widely believed to be behind the blast and leaders have previously hinted at its involvement.

In a speech Monday, Mr. Katz said the Houthis would meet a similar fate as the other members of an Iranian-led alliance in the region, including Haniyeh. He also noted that Israel has killed other leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, helped topple Syria’s Bashar Assad and destroyed Iran’s anti-aircraft systems.

“We will strike [the Houthis’] strategic infrastructure and cut off the head of the leadership,” he said.

“Just like we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon, we will do in Hodeida and Sanaa,” he said, referring to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders killed in previous Israeli attacks.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have launched scores of missiles and drones at Israel throughout the war, including a missile that landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday and wounded at least 16 people.

Israel has carried out three sets of airstrikes in Yemen during the war and vowed to step up the pressure on the rebel group until the missile attacks stop. \

Washington:

Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday acknowledged that Israel had killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this year, as he warned the military would “decapitate” the leadership of Yemen’s Huthi rebels.

“We will strike hard at the Huthis… and decapitate their leadership — just as we did with Haniyeh, (Yahya) Sinwar, and (Hassan) Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon, we will do so in Hodeida and Sanaa,” Katz said, in the first public acknowledgement that Israel was behind the killing of Haniyeh in July in the Iranian capital.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

“Initial reports do not indicate any injuries, however, medical evaluations are ongoing. We are currently conducting a damage assessment,” the U.S. official said. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.S. troops in northeastern Syria were attacked by a drone, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday, although there were no injuries according to initial reports.

This is the second attack in recent days against U.S. forces in the Middle East as the region braces for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Iran-backed Hamas, was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran on July 31, an attack that drew threats of revenge by Iran against Israel, which is fighting the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza. Iran blamed Israel for the killing. Israel has not claimed responsibility.

The assassination and the killing of the senior military commander of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, by Israel in a strike on Beirut, have fueled concern the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war.

Iran has said the U.S. bears responsibility in the assassination of Haniyeh because of its support for Israel.

“Initial reports do not indicate any injuries, however, medical evaluations are ongoing. We are currently conducting a damage assessment,” the U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity about the attack in Syria.

The attack took place at Rumalyn Landing Zone, which hosts U.S. troops along with those from the U.S.-led coalition.

Five U.S. personnel were injured when two Katyusha rockets were fired at Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq on Monday, an attack the Pentagon blamed on Iran-backed proxies.

The United States has 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighbouring Iraq, who it says are on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries but was later pushed back.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was buried in Qatar on Friday after his killing in Tehran, an attack blamed on Israel that has heightened regional tensions as the Gaza war dragged on.

Haniyeh was laid to rest in Lusail, north of the capital Doha, following funeral prayers at the Gulf emirate’s largest mosque attended by thousands of people.

Haniyeh, the Palestinian armed group’s political chief, played a key role in mediated talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The burial was restricted to a small number of people including one of Haniyeh’s daughters, Sara, who shared a video on social media showing her pouring holy water over a pebble-topped grave before lowering her head to kiss it.

“In this moment, I buried my soul under the dirt and I departed. I departed with all the pain of the world in my ribs,” she captioned the video uploaded on X.

Mourners earlier on Friday lined up inside Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Mosque, where Haniyeh’s casket, draped in a Palestinian flag, was briefly carried in to the shouts of angry mourners.

Others prayed on mats outside in temperatures that reached 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit).

“He was a symbol, a resistance leader… people are angry,” said Taher Adel, 25, a Jordanian student residing in the Qatari capital.

Haniyeh’s predecessor Khaled Meshaal spoke at the ceremony, saying he had “served his cause, his people… and never abandoned them”.

Turkey and Pakistan announced a day of mourning on Friday to honour Haniyeh, while Hamas called for a “day of furious rage”.

Many mourners in Doha wore scarves that combined the Palestinian flag with a checkered keffiyeh pattern and the message in English: “Free Palestine”.

High-profile killings

Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn “hit” on their accommodation in Tehran Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian a day earlier.

Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of the attack, has not directly commented on it.

The killing of Qatar-based Haniyeh is among several incidents since April that have sent regional tensions soaring during the Gaza war, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Iranian officials met with representatives of these groups on Wednesday to discuss the next steps, either “a simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party”, a source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement told AFP.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met with his visiting British counterpart John Healey on Friday and stressed “the importance of establishing a coalition” to support “Israel’s defence against Iran and its proxies”, Gallant’s office said.

Military chief Herzi Halevi told troops Israel would respond “very strongly” to any attacks, an army statement said.

France urged its nationals visiting Iran to leave “due to the increased risk of a military escalation”.

During the Gaza war, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire, and did so again on Friday.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency reported several people killed in the territory’s north, and Israel’s military said it had killed around 30 operatives near Rafah, in the south.

Haniyeh’s assassination came hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Haniyeh’s deputy, Saleh al-Aruri, was killed in Beirut early this year.

On Thursday Israel confirmed the death of Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in a July strike in Gaza.

Deal ‘off the table’

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

The attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas operatives also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

The fighting has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. On Friday, the UN Satellite Centre said nearly two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza, or 151,265 structures, have been damaged or destroyed during the war.

On Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh in Tehran, having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.

The New York Times, citing Middle Eastern officials, has reported that Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device planted weeks ago at a Tehran guesthouse.

Asked about the report, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists “there was no other Israeli aerial attack… in all the Middle East” on the night of Shukr’s killing in Lebanon.

Israel said Shukr’s assassination — for which Hezbollah said retaliation was “inevitable” — was a response to rocket fire which killed 12 youths last week in the annexed Golan Heights.

Iranian news agency Fars said the US report was a “lie”, insisting that the Hamas leader was killed by a “projectile”.

Analyst Hugh Lovatt said Haniyeh’s killing “will mean that a ceasefire deal with Israel is now totally off of the table”.

The White House said US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and affirmed his commitment to defend Israel’s security “against all threats from Iran”.

“We have the basis for a ceasefire (in Gaza)… They should move on it now,” Biden told reporters after the call.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The news could not have been more dramatic- just hours after Palestinian leader and Hamas Political chief Ismail Haniyeh had met with the new Iranian President, and attended President Pezeshkian’s inauguration, the Iranian guard IRGC announced he had been killed- while there is still some confusion over how he died- with Iran blaming Israel for a missile strike, while US and Israeli news reports pointed to a delayed bomb smuggled in months ago- the impact of his assassination will be felt deeply across the region

1. Iran’s response came swiftly- the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei led funeral prayers in Tehran, and the government said revenge for the violation of sovereignty would come soon

2. On the same day Haniyeh was killed Israel announced it had assassinated Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukur in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, and that it had killed another Hamas leader Mohammad Deif in a Gaza bombing a month ago

3. The attack on Hezbollah followed the killings of 12 children in Majdal Shams on the Golan heights in a rocket attack that Israel blamed Hezbollah for. The attack was on a community of Druze or Arab Israelis. While facing their anger- and posters he was a war criminal

4. A day later in Tehran, newly elected President Pezeshkian took oath- many countries sent envoys to the event- India sent Road and Transport minister Nitin Gadkari- and as you can see – leaders of Hamas Haniyeh as well as Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah were in the same picture

 The killing followed other global developments

5. PM Benjamin Netanyahu went to the US to garner support from the govt, also presidential candidates and the Congress. While President Biden and President Trump were effusive, VP Harris was more measured

Remember 40,000 have now been killed in Israeli bombing of Gaza, including about 15,000 children. 115 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas custody

6. Meanwhile China played peacemaker between the two biggest Palestinian groups Fatah- that formed the government the West Bank, and Hamas, that has controlled Gaza for the past 2 decades- they agreed to form a Unity government- this was criticised by Israel and could have been a trigger for the Haniyeh killing

7. And earlier in the month, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion calling Israel’s continued occupation of Gaza and the West Bank- unlawful and a violation of International law

So while Israel has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing- there are several reasons why most believe it is an Israeli operation 

1. Vowed reprisals for October 7- and finishing off Hamas, killing its leaders has been the goal
Haniyeh was killed in Iran, not in Qatar where he lives or in Turkey where he visited frequently- as these would cause a bigger problem for Israel- both Qatar and Turkey host US bases

2. Iran nuclear scientists have been killed in similar attacks in Tehran- and the MO appears to be Israeli

3. PM Netanyahu has consistently opposed a ceasefire despite US pressure to accept one, and killing off Hamas’s chief negotiator will slow down the ceasefire process as well as take the pressure off

4. This assassination will put new Iran President Pezeshkian in the spot- as he has advocated engagement with the west, as well as force US leaders to close ranks with Israel if Irans response sparks a war- Much depends on whether it will be an attack of reprisal- targeted killing by stealth, or escalatory strikes, and will Iran attack alone or along with proxies and allies in the region like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Kata’ib Hezbollah?

India has not so far commented on all that has happened- what is the impact of all these events

1. India was put in an awkward position- first by Iranians who included Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in photo where Indian minister by present, and then by Israel if it targeted the Hamas leader in Tehran while he was there- that awkwardness will continue as India engages both

2. India’s newly signed MoU for Chabahar port could be in trouble- both from conflict and from more sanctions

3. India’s agreement with Israel to send workers to fill in for construction and caregiver jobs will also face challenges

4. India has already issued a travel advisory for Lebanon, Air India has cancelled flights to Israel- likely to be more advisories

5. Connectivity and Trade projects like IMEEC and I2U2 will be grounded

WV Take:

India’s road in west asia or middle east will always be complicated by history, close geography as well as the 8 million indians who live and work in the region being impacted. India’s interests in the region including trade, energy and connectivity are also too intricate to submit to binaries- of good and bad, and choosing one side over the other. Those interests are best served by asserting India’s position in favour of rule of law and justice, respect for the multilateral order rather than might and power- and not forsaking old friendships in favour of new ones.

1. Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East by Yonah Jeremy Bob Ilan Evyatar

2. Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman

3. Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters Helena Cobban and Rami Khouri

4. Israel’s Long War with Hezbollah: Military Innovation and Adaptation Under Fire Kindle Edition by Raphael D. Marcus

5. Hamas Contained By Tareq Baconi

6. Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States by Trita Parsi

7. Footnotes in Gaza By Joe Sacco

Production: Gayatri Menon and Shibu Narayan

While Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Iran’s capital Tehran mere hours after the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian has created shockwaves across the world, the response to the killing is expected to be imminent, and, possibly, tectonic.

Haniyeh was, after all, the political chief of a group labelled a terror entity by the US and many others. In fact, some had designated the group so long before they listed Al Qaeda in the same bracket. The likes of Al Qaeda saw a more rapid ascent in using violence globally, culminating with the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, which also launched a two-decade-long ‘war on terror’. The likes of Hamas, on the other hand, confined themselves around the issue of both the sovereignty of Palestine and a fundamental ideological aversion to the state of Israel.

‘Axis of Resistance’ At Iranian President’s Swearing-In Ceremony

The killing of Haniyeh is shocking but not unexpected. In November 2023, a month after Hamas orchestrated the terror attack against Israel – from which the group continues to hold hostages – the Israeli establishment had made it clear that it would go after the leadership of the likes of Hamas in Gaza, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and others. Back then, the Yemen-based Ansrallah (more popularly known as the Houthis) was not as big an actor as it has today become, specifically in the Red Sea theatre. At Pezeshkian’s swearing-in, the leadership of all these groups, known more formally as the ‘Axis of Resistance’, were in attendance.

Watch | What Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh Did Hours Before His Assassination

The fact that Haniyeh was killed in the middle of Tehran at a time when it was teeming with military personnel sends out a strong message of both access to and the compromise of Iranian security and polity infrastructure. This further underscored the fact that a narrative was built to showcase where groups like Hamas gain their strength from (although this has not been an area of question or contention). While Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, Iran blames the Jewish state for the same. However, Israel has, in the meantime, taken responsibility for the killing of top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in a strike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and the elimination of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in Gaza, known to be a key architect of the October 7 terror strike.

What Next?

The big question at this juncture is, what next? In April, Iran retaliated against Israel after the latter targeted what Tehran claimed was part of its diplomatic mission in Damascus, Syria. This event set forth an escalation ladder where Iran could not be seen as being unable or incapable of directly responding militarily and not just via its knitting of proxy groups spread across the region. While Tehran for long has sought to create a level of strategic ambiguity, where attacks by proxy groups that receive material and political support from the country’s all-powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its elite clandestine foreign wing, the Quds Force, gave it a level of deniability, Haniyeh’s assassination may in part be designed to reverse this blueprint and pull Iran out of its own shadows, into a more direct, visible, and public confrontation.

Also Read | Iran’s Leader Orders Attack On Israel After Hamas Chief’s Killing: Report

Even if Iran would for the moment want to hold back, the rhetoric and expectation from its Axis partners may not allow it to do so. If by way of argument, Israel is goading a response from Tehran, a speech given by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday found itself in the same space as Israel, looking for an active response from the Iranian side. “Do those people think they can kill a commander like Ismail Haniyeh and Iran will remain silent?” Nasrallah said as he laid out a requirement for avenging Haniyeh’s death. For long, the Iran-backed Axis has fought for its own ideological and political aims that feed into a larger construct, in way of providing manpower and geography alike. During this, they have also absorbed tremendous loss. This is especially true for the Hamas in Gaza. It may become hard for Iran now to exercise strategic restraint, even though the likes of Hezbollah may well do so themselves in the long term, despite the rhetoric.

Some Forced To Find A Middle Path

For others in the region, specifically in the Arab Gulf, the current trajectory of escalation remains worrying. Many top Arab representatives, including from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, were present at Pezeshkian’s inauguration. The likes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the recent past have increased their engagement with Iran in a bid to course-correct the long-standing narrative of Shia-Sunni confrontations. While sectarian issues remain mostly entrenched, geopolitical and geoeconomic realities have forced those like Saudi Arabia, for example, to find a middle path with the Houthis in Yemen via dialogue, a group with which they technically have been at war since 2015.

For Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and so on, reconstructing this crisis first as one between Israel and Iran, and then, as a longer and larger battle for Palestinian self-determination, may well be crucial to secure their own neutrality.

Region Remains Sensitive

The US, a core security player in the region, has been relatively silent since Haniyeh’s death. US President Joe Biden has said that Haniyeh’s killing will not help the ceasefire and a negotiated deal with Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, himself facing severe political headwinds, seems to have chosen the popular demand to eliminate figureheads such as Haniyeh at a time when, even if a deal was brokered, he would have had to release in exchange hundreds of Hamas members who are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Finally, regional tensions are expected to remain significantly high in the days to come as Iran and its proxies decide upon a response. In April, there were hints that the escalation between Iran and Israel was at some level mitigated and managed, perhaps via indirect communication or some kind of mediation. This time, the region may well not be so lucky unless a regional and global effort to calm the situation down is mobilised immediately.

[Kabir Taneja is a Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation. He is the author of ‘The ISIS Peril: The World’s Most Feared Terror Group and its Shadow on South Asia’ (Penguin Viking, 2019)]

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

President Joe Biden speaks with reporters after greeting reporter Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., following their release as part of a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday the killing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh was not helpful for reaching a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.

There has been an increased risk of an escalation into a broader Middle East war after the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran drew threats of retaliation against Israel.

Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, who had participated in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.

Also read: What does Haniyeh’s death mean for Israel-Iran rivalry?

Anxious residents in Israeli-besieged Gaza feared that Haniyeh’s killing on Wednesday would prolong the war.

Iran said the killing took place hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for its new president.

“It doesn’t help,” Mr. Biden told reporters late on Thursday, when asked if Haniyeh’s assassination ruined the chances for a ceasefire agreement.

Mr. Biden also said he had a direct conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Thursday.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has issued no claim of responsibility but he has said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies of late, including Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.

Israel’s tensions with Iran and Hezbollah have fanned fears of a widened conflict in a region already on edge amid Israel’s assault on Gaza which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide accusations that Israel denies.

The United States has said it was not involved in the killing of Haniyeh. 

On July 20, Israel carried out a massive air strike on Hodeidah, the Red Sea port city in Yemen, that is controlled by the Houthi militia, in response to a drone attack by the Houthis that had hit Tel Aviv. The attack reportedly caused losses worth millions, besides killing at least three and wounding over 80 others. On July 30, Israel carried out an air strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, targeting Fuad Shukr aka al-Hajj Mohsen, a top commander of Hezbollah, three days after a rocket attack killed 12 young people at a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel had blamed Hezbollah for the attack and vowed retaliation. On the same day, Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, was killed at his residence in Tehran. Haniyeh, who was living in exile in Qatar, travelled to Iran to attend the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian, the Islamic Republic’s new President. In Majlis, Iran’s parliament, Haniyeh hugged Mr. Pezeshkian, while lawmakers chanted “Death to Israel”. Before dawn, Haniyeh was killed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite paramilitary force of Iran, and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing of Haniye

Read the full story here

Death waited for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for over two months. A bomb was secretly smuggled into the guesthouse in Iran where he was expected to arrive, reports The New York Times citing several officials in the US and the Middle East.

It was hidden in the guesthouse in a posh locality in Tehran, protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – around two months ago. The guesthouse was inside a large compound used by the IRGC for their secret meetings and housing important guests.

The wait, though, was long, it was fruitful.

Haniyeh, a top Hamas negotiator who had led its political delegation in Qatar, arrived in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian.

On Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that he was in his room in the guesthouse and the assassins detonated the bomb remotely, reported NYT. The blast shook the building. A portion of the wall collapsed. Windows were shattered.

Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in the attack that Hamas called a “treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”. The Palestinian group engaged in a deadly fight over Israel’s Gaza campaign called it a “grave escalation” as it accused Israel for the assassination.

The Hamas chief’s killing threatened to disrupt talks to end the war and unleash another wave of violence.

Israel hasn’t claimed responsibility yet. But the report states that Israeli intelligence officials had shared details about the covert operation with western officials in the immediate period.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken had denied that the US had prior knowledge about the assassination plot.

It was speculated earlier that Haniyeh was killed in a missile strike, but the missile theory raised doubts over how Israel evaded the air defence systems in the Iranian capital. The damage caused was minimal, much lesser than what a missile strike would have done.

The report found the assassins were able to find a gap in the Iranian security to smuggle in the bomb, though it remains unclear how they managed to keep it hidden for two months.

There were rumours of witnesses seeing a missile-like object hitting the window of Haniyeh’s room, but Iranian officials have confirmed that the blast occurred inside the room and that the bomb had been placed in advance.

According to Middle Eastern officials, it took months for the planning and needed detailed surveillance of the compound. The planning was so precise that the next room, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah was staying, wasn’t as badly damaged.

The assassination has caused tremendous embarrassment for Iranian officials who are yet to find out how or when the bombs were planted.

A medical team housed in the compound declared Haniyeh dead. They failed to revive the bodyguard too.

Israel’s spy and foreign intelligence agency Mossad is primarily tasked with assassinations outside the country. Mossad chief David Barnea had vowed to hunt down Hamas leaders after the October 7 attacks.

He had said it would take time, like it had after the Munich massacre, to get hold of the Palestinian leaders.

Barnea was referring to the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian operatives at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Mossad had activated its hit squad to carry out the ‘Operation Wrath of God’ covert operation, codenamed Bayonet, to avenge the murders.