Hamas’s top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has been killed in Iran.
In a statement, the Palestinian group said Haniyeh, who lived in exile, was killed after a “treacherous Zionist” attack on his residence.
The assassination is a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV cited senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also confirmed Haniyeh’s death, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted to have said: “Haniyeh’s martyrdom in Tehran will strengthen the deep and unbreakable bond between Tehran, Palestine, and the resistance,”
It was the second high-profile assassination to be attributed to Israel in a matter of hours, after a strike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander, heightening fears that the region was sliding towards a full-blown war.
Israel did not immediately comment on Haniyeh’s death and typically neither confirms or denies assassination attempts on foreign soil.
However, Israel’s Minister of Heritage, Amichay Eliyahu, praised the assassination, claiming it “makes the world a little better.”
In a post on X, Eliyahu said: “No mercy for these mortals.”
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