Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran home

The targeted killing of Ismail Haniyeh marks the highest-ranking death of a Hamas political official since the Gaza conflict began.

Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was targeted and killed in the Iranian capital Tehran, the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday.

The IRGC said it was still investigating the cause of the incident.

Hamas confirmed the death of Haniyeh, saying the leader had been killed by Israel after attending the inauguration ceremony of the new president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Israel didn’t immediately comment on Haniyeh’s death.

Israel has said it would target Hamas leaders for launching the October 7 attacks that sparked the war in Gaza.

The targeted killing of Haniyeh marks the highest-ranking death of a Hamas political official since the conflict began.

The announcement of Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut, a strike that already risked further expanding the war in Gaza beyond the strip to the wider Middle East.

Iran, the Middle East’s Shiite power, backs both Hamas and Hezbollah, and Haniyeh’s killing on Iranian soil is likely to heighten regional tensions just as the US is pushing Israel and Hamas to agree on a cease-fire in Gaza.

The death would be viewed as a major win for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to take out Hamas leaders for launching the October 7 attacks that Israel says killed 1200 people and saw 250 taken hostage.

Israel’s military operations in Gaza following the October 7 assault have left more than 39,000 people dead in the enclave, according to Palestinian health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants.

Haniyeh, as Hamas’s overall political leader, was part of a complex and secretive Hamas leadership structure that includes a military wing and a political arm.

Throughout the war in Gaza, Hamas’s leader in the strip, Yahya Sinwar, has been viewed as the key decision maker, as he has been closest to the US-designated terrorist group’s military wing on the ground.

But Haniyeh was also viewed as an important decision maker in Hamas’s consensus-driven leadership, and his death is likely to complicate delicate cease-fire talks mediated by Arab nations.

Ismail Haniyeh with supporters during a visit to Lebanon in 2020. Picture: AFP

Haniyeh was close to the spiritual founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, and rose through the ranks of the organisation, first becoming leader in Gaza, before taking on overall leadership of the group’s political wing in 2017.

Haniyeh is now one of a series of Hamas military and political officials who have died or are believed dead since the start of the war.

The Israeli military earlier this month launched a targeted strike in Gaza on the group’s most senior military commander, Mohammed Deif, and Israel has said there is reason to believe the strike achieved its aim. The Israeli military hasn’t so far confirmed his death and Hamas has said Deif wasn’t killed. Israel killed Deif’s deputy in a strike earlier this year.

Of the group’s political leadership, Israel killed Haniyeh’s deputy Saleh Arouri in a targeted strike in Beirut in January. Israel in April killed three of Haniyeh’s adult sons with airstrikes on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, saying they were members of Hamas’s military wing. Hamas said seven people died in the strike, including four of Haniyeh’s grandchildren.

In all, there are roughly 15 people at any one time in the senior political leadership, which determines the direction of Hamas via consensus, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. Israel has vowed to hunt down Sinwar in Gaza and he now marks the biggest target among the leadership of Hamas.

Haniyeh’s death could signal a new stage of the conflict in Gaza, which is already the bloodiest ever between Israel and Palestinians, and tensions have increased between Israel and Hamas’s ally, Hezbollah.

Men search through the rubble of the house of the sister of Ismail Haniyeh. Picture: AFP

Israel was bracing for a response to the strike on Tuesday in Beirut, which Israel said killed Fuad Shukr, the highest-ranking leader of the group to be killed in years.

Israel said it killed Shukr in retaliation for a Saturday attack on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 young people. Hezbollah didn’t immediately say whether Shukr had died in the strike.

During the Gaza conflict, Israel and Hezbollah have regularly exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Tuesday’s strike was Israel’s second targeting Beirut, the Lebanese capital. An Israeli airstrike there also killed Arouri.

Hezbollah had warned that it would respond if one of its senior leaders was targeted, Arab diplomats said.

US and Arab diplomats involved in efforts to defuse tensions in the region were alarmed that Israel chose to strike Beirut. They fear that the situation could spiral into a two-front war for Israel that could potentially also directly involve Iran.

Iran and Israel engaged in an unprecedented direct exchange of fire in April. But so far, Iran and its most-powerful military ally, Hezbollah, have refrained from engaging in an all-out conflict with Israel.

Before Tuesday’s strike, the Biden administration had scrambled to calm tensions following the Golan Heights attack, hoping for an Israeli response that would send a strong signal to Hezbollah but not spark a wider war.

The killing of Haniyeh in Tehran a day after the inauguration of Iran’s new president caused some Iranian media outlets and social media activists to demand a strong response from their leadership.

Iran-backed groups, including the Yemen-based Houthis and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, condemned the killing. One of Hamas’s Palestinian political rivals in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority called the killing a “cowardly act”.

The Wall Street Journal