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On July 30, 2024, in Tehran, Iran, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas. The Iranian Presidency / Handout via REUTERS / WANA (West Asia News Agency)
ISRAEL: According to Hamas, its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed by an Israeli attack on Wednesday in Tehran, where Haniyeh had gone to witness the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Haniyeh was slain in a home in the Iranian capital, according to a Hamas statement published on the terrorist group’s Telegram channel.
The event is being looked into, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and one of Haniyeh’s bodyguards was also slain in the early morning attack.
Israel refrained from commenting right away.
Haniyeh passed away about ten months after Hamas, an organization supported by Iran, attacked southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping roughly 250 more.
Israel reacted with a military campaign in Gaza that, according to the health ministry there, has killed over 39,400 Palestinians. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian deaths and militant deaths when calculating its death toll.
After fleeing Gaza in 2019, Haniyeh took up residence in exile in Qatar and was appointed director of Hamas’ political bureau in 2017.
The United States Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, responded, “I do not have anything for you on that,” to reporters in the Philippines when they asked him to confirm if Israel was behind the strike on Tehran and if Israel had informed the United States.
Austin stated that he will keep in contact with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other important figures in the area and that the situation along the Israel-Lebanon border is still concerning.
Austin declared, “We are going to do all in our power to ensure that we prevent things from developing into a larger conflict throughout the region.”
According to a statement from his office, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described Haniyeh’s murder as “a cruel act and a major escalation.”
Turkey denounced what it described as Haniyeh’s “shameful assassination.” The attack “also intends to push the Gaza war to a regional dimension,” according to a statement from the Turkish foreign ministry.
Russia denounced Haniyeh’s murder as well, describing it as a “unacceptable political assassination.” VOA
