Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in the Iranian capital, Tehran, the Palestinian militant group said on Wednesday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he was targeted at his residence while visiting Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of the assassination and called it “a grave escalation” in a comment to Reuters. Israel has yet to comment on the killing.
It comes less than a day after Israel attacked the Lebanese capital Beirut in what its forces said was a targeted strike on Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Israel had vowed to eliminate Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attack that left 1,200 dead and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
01 August 2024
13:28 GMTA US spy plane was spotted flying off the coasts of Syria, Lebanon and Israel for over four hours following Israel’s missile strike on Beirut and the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday.
The navigation data, documented by flight-tracking service FlightRadar24, was verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad. Images showed an EP-3E Aries II Orion arriving on the Israeli coast from Chania airport on the Greek island of Crete.
The aircraft gathers tactical intelligence and makes it available to commanders almost instantly, Al Jazeera noted.
- 12:31 GMT
Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, has sent a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres warning that Tehran is “determined to take every necessary measure to defend its national security” following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a missile strike.
Bagheri called Haniyeh's killing an “act of terror” and “just another manifestation of Israel’s decades-long pattern of terrorism and sabotage targeting Palestinians and other supporters and sympathizers of the Palestinian cause.”
While Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel, West Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the strike.
- 11:58 GMT
Top Iranian officials will meet representatives of Tehran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen on Thursday, Reuters has reported. The group will discuss how to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, five sources have told the outlet.
Representatives from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and some Iraqi resistance groups will attend, the sources said.
A “thorough assessment” will be made to “find the best and most effective way to retaliate against the Zionist regime (Israel),” a senior Iranian official with direct knowledge of the meeting said. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being involved in Haniyeh’s killing.
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