(Tehran) Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike in Tehran, the Palestinian Islamist movement, at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, and the Revolutionary Guards in Iran announced on Wednesday.
Read “Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas Pragmatist”
” [Notre] brother, the leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he attended the inauguration of the new Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian, Hamas wrote in a statement.
“The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act that will not go unanswered,” said Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ political bureau.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the “cowardly assassination” of Mr Himayeh.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination, but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the group’s October 7 attack on the country that left 1,200 dead and 250 hostages.
The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Iranian Islamic Republic, announced for their part that “the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic resistance of Hamas, was hit in Tehran, and […] He and one of his bodyguards died as martyrs,” according to a statement on their news website Sepah.
Investiture of Massoud Pezeshkian
Mr Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in of new Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian before parliament on Tuesday.
Iran, an ally of Hamas, does not recognize the Israeli state and has made support for the Palestinian cause a central part of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
PHOTO IRANIAN PRESIDENCY, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) meets with top Palestinian leader Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024.
The war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom have died, according to the army.
In response, Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organisation, as do the United States and the European Union.
His army has launched an offensive that has so far killed 39,400 people, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not give details on the number of civilians and fighters killed.
In his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Massoud Pezeshkian, a reformer, denounced Israel’s “crimes” in the Palestinian territory, while Iranians attending the ceremony chanted “Death to Israel! Death to America!”
“Those who supply the weapons that kill children in Gaza cannot teach others about humanity and tolerance,” he said, referring to the United States.
“Support for the cause of the oppressed Palestinian nation will continue with force, and no factor will be able to disrupt our will in this direction,” Massoud Pezeshkian had already affirmed in a statement on Monday.