Hamas on Wednesday confirmed that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in an Israeli attack in Iranian capital Tehran. This has raised concerns about potential escalation of conflict between Iran and Israel.
Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed after Israel targeted a building in Tehran. He arrived in the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.
Hamas in a statement said Haniyeh was killed in "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran."
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also confirmed the assassination, saying the residence of Haniyeh in Tehran was struck in the early morning. It said a probe has been launched to find out who was behind the attack.
Who was Ismail Haniyeh?
Ismail Haniyeh, who left the Gaza Strip in 2019, had been living in Qatar. He was the spokesperson of Hamas's global diplomacy amid the escalation of war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel had killed his three sons and four grandchildren during an airstrike in April. Haniyeh's sons were travelling in a car in Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City when they were attacked. They were headed to a family gathering on Eid al-Fitr. Back then, IDF had claimed responsibility for the attack on Haniyeh's sons, saying they were Hamas military operatives who conducted terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip.
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Haniyeh was originally from Al-Shati and his family home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Haniyeh's eldest son Abdel-Salam Haniyeh is reportedly his only surviving child.
After his sons were killed Haniyeh had slammed Israel for the attack in April, saying Hamas will not make concessions on its demands. "The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people... The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, at the climax of the negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position," he said in April.
Haniyeh's assassination comes amid the Israel Defense Forces taking responsibility for the death of Fuad Shukr, who was the top military commander of Hezbollah, in an attack on an eight-storey apartment building in southern Beirut on Tuesday. The attack happened in Dahieh, a Beirut suburb, which is a stronghold of Hezbollah, around 7.40 pm. The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed, including two children, and 74 people were injured. Hezbollah was yet to confirm Shukr's death.