Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Palestinian Islamist movement, killed in Iran

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike on Wednesday, July 31, in Tehran, the Palestinian Islamist movement announced, accusing Israel. “[Notre] brother, the leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his residence in Tehran after his participation in the inauguration of the new president” Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, Hamas wrote. Head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in his sixties, was based in Doha. He had just attended the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Tuesday.

The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Iranian Islamic Republic, announced that “The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, was hit in Tehran, and (…) he and one of his bodyguards were martyred”according to a statement on their news website Sepah. They did not immediately specify the causes of “the incident” and announced the opening of an investigation. When contacted, the Israeli army declined to comment.