Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran

RIYADH: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran, the Palestinian group said.

Iran's state television reported the killing on Wednesday morning.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Haniya and a guard were ambushed at their residence and an investigation is underway.

Haniya, who was the head of the political office of the Islamic resistance group Hamas, traveled to Iran for the swearing-in ceremony of reformist President Massoud Pezeshkian.

Earlier, the 62-year-old Palestinian leader met with Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said: “This killing by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a serious escalation aimed at breaking the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieving false goals. We confirm that this escalation will not achieve its goals.”

“Hamas is a concept and an institution, not individuals. Hamas will continue on this path, despite the casualties, and we are confident of victory.”

Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen's Houthis, said: “The attack on Ismail Haniyeh is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the group carried out a deadly raid on settlements outside the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.

Israel launched a devastating military assault on Gaza shortly thereafter and has since killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians.

The two sides have been trying to negotiate a hostage release deal that would involve an end to hostilities, with the help of US and regional negotiators.

The killing comes amid escalating fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is blamed for an attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children last weekend.

Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night, saying it had killed Fuad Shukr, the head of Hezbollah's military operations department, which Israel says was responsible for the attack in the Golan Heights, a charge the Lebanese group denies.

Israel, which has not yet commented on Haniyeh's murder, has previously carried out assassinations in Iran of figures key to the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

In 2021, Israel killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist.

But since the Gaza war, Israel has targeted key figures in Hamas and the IRGC, including Saleh Al-Aruri, the Palestinian group's leader.

In April, Iran said its consulate in Damascus had been destroyed and a top general killed in an attack Tehran blamed on Israel.

Iran soon fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, but they were all shot down. Israel retaliated by attacking targets in Isfahan.

Further escalation between the two sides was avoided through diplomacy, but Israel continued to attack Iranian affiliates in Syria.

The scale of Israel's military response to Hamas attacks has been condemned, and the International Court of Justice has agreed that there may be a case where the country engaged in acts of genocide.

Israel is also accused of collective punishment and using starvation as a weapon in the fight against militants.

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