Hamas has described the assassination of senior leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “grave escalation.”
Al-Aqsa TV reported that senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk called the assassination a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished.”
Both Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed Haniyeh’s death during his visit to Iran, with Hamas stating that Israel targeted his residence in Tehran.
Earlier, Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, has been killed in Iran, according to a statement from Hamas and Iranian officials.
Hamas said its leader was killed early on Wednesday following an Israeli missile attack targeting his residence in Tehran.
In a statement, the group mourned the death of Haniyeh, 62, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Haniyeh, a prominent figure in the Palestinian political and resistance group, has been a key public figure before and during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The Iranian government has announced an investigation into the killing, with results expected to be released soon.
“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas.
the Israeli military claims that its fighter jets killed Hezbollah’s “most senior military commander” and head of its strategic unit, Fuad Shukr, also known as “Sayyid Muhsin,” in a strike on Beirut. However, this claim could not be independently verified.
The Israeli strike also resulted in the deaths of three Lebanese civilians, including two children.
Israel stated that Fuad Shukr was the “right-hand man” to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and served as his adviser for wartime operations.
According to the statement, Shukr had directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 8th and was responsible for the deaths of 12 children in Majdal Shams, located in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah denied involvement in the attack and stated that Shukr survived the Israeli strike.
