AP – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iranian 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. A separate Israeli strike in Lebanon on Tuesday that appears to have killed Fouad Shukur, a top Hezbollah military commander whom the U.S. blames for planning and launching the deadly 1983 Marine bombing in the Lebanese capital.
Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 attack sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war.
The apparent assassination comes at a precarious time, as United States President Joe Biden’s administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal. Senior officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt were set to meet for the latest round of talks.
