By Deutsche Welle
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced on Wednesday that the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran along with one of his bodyguards.
“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Hamas, was attacked in Tehran and as a result of this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement on the news page of this branch of the Iranian armed forces.
“The Brother, the Leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the movement, was killed in a Zionist attack on his offices in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new Iranian president,” the Palestinian movement confirmed in a statement.
Haniyeh, 61, had traveled to Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, Masud Pezeshkian, on Tuesday.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment on reports of the Hamas leader’s death.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing, but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas, a group considered a terrorist group by the EU and other countries, for the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage.
Iran’s statement gave no further details on how Haniyeh’s death occurred. Iranian state television reported the death early Wednesday and analysts immediately blamed Israel for the attack.
Hamas’s ‘moderate’ negotiator
Ismail Haniyeh was the tough face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy while the war was being waged in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Despite his rhetoric, many diplomats considered him a moderate compared to other members of the organization.
Appointed Hamas’ top official in 2017, Haniyeh shuttled between Turkey and the Qatari capital of Doha to escape the blockaded Gaza Strip, allowing him to act as a negotiator in ceasefire talks or speak with Hamas ally Iran.