Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran

By Abby Sewell The Associated Press

5 months ago

FILE - Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, speaks to journalists af ... — FILE – Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, speaks to journalists after his meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, shakes hands with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh at the start of their meeting at the President’s office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, meets Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, at the President’s office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

FILE – Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press briefing after his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, speaks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, center, and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group Ziad Nakhaleh in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. A portrait of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini hangs on the wall. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday, and Hamas blamed Israel for the attack.

Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.

An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hamas said Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of Iran’s new president.”

“Hamas declares to the great Palestinian people and the people of the Arab and Islamic nations and all the free people of the world, brother leader Ismail Haniyeh a martyr,” the terse statement said.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yehya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guard said the attack was under investigation.

Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House. The apparent assassination comes at a precarious time, as the Biden administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage-release deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome on Sunday to meet with senior Israel, Qatari and Egyptian officials in the latest round of talks.

Israel is suspected of running a yearslong assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic program. In 2020, a top Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling in a car outside Tehran.

In Israel’s war against Hamas since the Oct.7 terrorist attack, more than 39,360 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.