Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of the morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Wednesday, describing the strike as a ‘severe escalation’ that would not achieve its goals.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, mere hours after he had attended a significant swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president, and mentioned that an investigation was underway.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
In a statement, Hamas mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”
Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack. Israel itself did not immediately comment but it often doesn’t when it comes to assassination carried out by their Mossad intelligence agency.
Israel is suspected of running a years-long assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic program.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel had provided the grounds for “harsh punishment for itself” and it was Tehran’s duty to avenge the Hamas leader’s death as it had occurred in the Iranian capital. Iranian forces had already made strikes directly on Israel earlier in the Gaza war.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas immediately condemned Haniyeh’s killing, calling it a “cowardly act and dangerous development,” according to the Palestinian state news agency WAFA.
Several countries denounced the attack, with Russia calling it an “unacceptable political assassination,” while Turkey warned it would extend the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.