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Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Israeli airstrike after attending Iranian president’s inauguration
A precision missile strike detonated inside the room he was sleeping in
HAMAS' political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been assassinated by a clinical Israeli airstrike in a brazen attack on Iranian soil.
The hit came just hours after the fugitive attended the inauguration of Iran's new president with crowds chanting "death to Israel".
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No one has come forward to claim responsibility for the Tehran assassination, which was announced on state TV.
The killing comes just hours after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut with an airstrike.
Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, has been the tough-talking face of Hamas' international diplomacy as the group has held on to Israeli hostages in tunnels below Gaza.
He and just one bodyguard were killed in the precision missile strike as they slept at 2am local time in a military veterans’ building in Tehran.
The Hamas boss was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.
Crowds chanted "death to America" and "death to Israel" at the ceremony as Pezeshkian vowed to never give in to "bullying and pressure".
Some of the last pictures of Haniyeh showed him pulling the peace sign with his fingers and meeting Iranian lawmakers inside the country's parliament.
Other Hamas officials were reportedly staying in the guesthouse on a different floor, as well as the Secretary-General of Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad.
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Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence arm discovered exactly which room Haniyeh was sleeping in within scores also in the block.
A guided missile was then fired through the window of his room and detonated inside, killing him and his aide instantly.
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Mossad assassins could easily have taken the terror chief out as he led ceasefire talks in Qatar but chose to watch him and wait till he set foot on the territory of arch enemy Iran.
Israel is yet to claim responsibility for the killing.
The move was intended to limit political fallout - but sparked vows of Iranian revenge within hours.
Hamas declared "brother" Haniyeh a martyr in a statement announcing his death.
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The terror group 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 also vowed Haniyeh's death "will not go unpunished" and described the strike as a "severe escalation".
Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the group's October 7 terror attack.
Haniyeh's son said Allah had granted his father marytrdom.
Abdul Salam Haniyeh said: "My father survived four assassination attempts during his patriotic journey...
"We affirm that this assassination will not deter the resistance, which will fight until freedom is achieved."
Who was Ismail Haniyeh?
The political leader of Hamas assumed power in the mid-2000s after becoming the leader of the group in the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Haniyeh was born in 1962 in a refugee camp north of Gaza City and rose up through student politics while at university.
He was arrested by the Israeli military and served time in jail in the 1980s and 1990s during the First Intifada.
He was deported from Gaza to Lebanon by Israel where he lived for a year, before returning and entering politics in the strip.
The spiritual leader and founder of Hamas Sheik Yassin took him under his wing and became his mentor, assisting Haniyeh's rise to power.
The IDF tried to assassinate him in 2003 after Hamas conducted a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
He moved to Qatar in 2017 after was elevated to Hamas' top political leader.
In May, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said he would seek an arrest warrant for Haniyeh as well as two other Hamas leaders.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Iran had a "duty to avenge" the death and promised "severely punish the Zionist Entity".
Iran's Revolutionary Guard pledged a "harsh and painful response" while the country said earlier the assassination crossed a "red line" and it would be "costly for the enemy".
The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced the killing of Hamas' leader, branding it "a cowardly act" in a post on X.
Hussein al-Sheikh said: "We strongly denounce and condemn the assassination of the head of the Political Bureau, the national leader, Ismail Haniyeh."
"We consider it a cowardly act, this pushes us to remain more steadfast in the face of the occupation, and the necessity of achieving the unity of the Palestinian forces and factions.”
Hamas has not yet been willing to sign a peace deal with Israel following the state's invasion of Gaza and it continues to hold around 120 hostages.
Killing could ignite wider conflict
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the attack escalated the "war in Gaza to a regional level".
"If the international community does not take action to stop Israel, our region will face much larger conflicts."
Turkey's comments come days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to invade Israel.
Mohamed al-Hindi, a leading member of terror group Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera that the back-to-back killings will ignite a wider conflict in the region, AP reported.
He said the killings will bring out wider support from regionally aligned groups including Yemen, Iraq and other resistance movements.
Hezbollah said the killing of the Hamas boss would only "increase determination and stubbornness of resistance fighters across all resistance fronts".
Al-Qassam Brigades said Israel will "pay the price for its aggression with its blood".
Russia has described the attack as "absolutely unacceptable" and asked parties to "exercise restraint" and abandon escalation.
Qatar's foreign ministry said the killing was a "heinous crime" and a "flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law".
Qatar had been hosting unsuccessful peace talks between Israel and Hamas - but it remains unclear how the death would affect any settlement.
China, meanwhile, said it was "deeply concerned" there could be more regional instability.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the country's security chiefs at 10am UK time in response to the killing.
Israel has not officially attacked Iran since April when it blew up an air defence system in a tit-for-tat exchange with the Islamic Republic.
That strike followed Iran attacking Israel with more than 300 missiles and drones - the first ever direct attack from Iran to Israel.
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A warrant was out for Haniyeh's arrest by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in the Israel-Hamas war.
Haniyeh's funeral will take place in Doha on August 2.
Chilling reaction to sons' deaths
Earlier this year, Haniyeh gave a chilling reaction after being told his three sons and four grandchildren were reportedly killed in an airstrike.
Video showed Haniyeh playing with his hands and staring at the floor before carrying on with his day.
He claimed the deaths of his sons Hazem, Amir, and Mohammed were by the Israeli air force.
He also said in an interview with Al Jazeera that four of his grandchildren were killed - three granddaughters and one grandson.
Haniyeh said the death of his family wouldn't pressure the group into softening its ceasefire negotiations with Israel.
"The enemy believes that by targeting the families of the leaders, it will push them to give up the demands of our people," he said.
"Anyone who believes that targeting my sons will push Hamas to change its position is delusional...The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people."
But Haniyeh said more than 60 of his wider family members had been killed in the war.
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