Chief of Hamas Ismail, the leader of Hamas, and one of his bodyguards were slain in Tehran during the continuous confrontation between Israel and Palestine. The deaths have been verified by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a statement.
The statement goes on to say that Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, the Islamist organization that governs Gaza, Palestine, was “assassinated.”
“With condolences to the heroic nation of Palestine and the Islamic nation and combatants of the Resistant Front and the noble nation of Iran, this morning [Wednesday] the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political office of the Islamic Resistance of Hamas, was hit in Tehran, and following this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” the IRGC said in a statement.
The Islamist group has laid the blame at the feet of Israel, stating that Haniyeh was murdered in a “treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.” Chief of Hamas Ismail: Haniyeh killed in an alleged “Israeli raid” in Iran According to the group, an inquiry is being conducted to learn more specifics about the attack.
The leader of Hamas was present at Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration on Tuesday, the day before he was assassinated. He also got to know Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran.
In the meantime, 74 people have been injured and three people, including two children, have died in what the Israeli military has called a “targeted assassination operation” against a Hezbollah commander in southern Beirut, according to the country’s health ministry.
The executions occur at a time when the administration of US President Joe Biden is pressuring Israel and Hamas to accept a settlement that includes at least a temporary cease-fire and captive release.
Who was Ismail Haniyeh?
Hamas, the Palestinian political movement that rules the Gaza Strip, elected Ismail Abdulsalam Ahmed Haniya as the head of the group’s political bureau, replacing Khaled Meshaal, on May 6, 2017.
After the state of Israel was established in 1948, Haniya’s parents evacuated the city of Asqalan and settled in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza. She attended the al-Azhar Institute in Gaza and earned a degree in Arabic literature from the Islamic University in Gaza.
Three of his boys were slain in northern Gaza earlier this year by an Israeli assault.
2019 saw Haniyeh fleeing the Gaza Strip, where he was exiled to Qatar. It is important to note that the new Israel-Hamas battle began on October 7, with the mastermind behind it being Yehya Sinwar, the top Hamas figure in Gaza.