Cunning way top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed

It has been assumed a Hamas leader killed in Tehran was the victim of an air strike – but there are reports it was far more planned and complex.

Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by a bomb that was smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying two months before his arrival, according to a report.

Haniyeh, who was initially thought to have been killed in an air strike, died from a remotely detonated bomb inside the guesthouse, seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians and an American official, told the New York Times.

The bomb was hidden inside the guesthouse approximately two months before Haniyeh’s visit, five of the Middle Eastern officials, according to the Times.

According to the sources, the bomb detonated remotely once it was confirmed Haniyeh was inside the room at around 2am local time.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who perished in Tehran. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

The explosion was so targeted that the room where the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, next door sustained little damage, Iranian officials told the Times.

The officials likened the attack’s precision to the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated by Israel using a remote controlled machine gun in 2020.

The explosion also killed a bodyguard, according to the report.

The guesthouse Haniyeh was staying at is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Neshat, a wealthy neighbourhood of northern Tehran.

Tehran guesthouse where Ismail Haniyeh showing the damage from the device.

IRGC members briefed on the incident said the explosion shook the entire building, shattering windows and causing part of an exterior wall to collapse.

The IRGC-affiliated Sabereen News posted photos of the burnt-out building, which were later verified by western outlets, showing an entire corner of the complex covered in black ash with debris scattered below.

With the revelation that Haniyeh was killed by a remotely detonated bomb, not by an air strike or drone strike as previously speculated, Iranian officials slammed the assassination as a major security failure.

Iranians hold portraits of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during his funeral procession, in Tehran, on August 1, 2024, ahead of his burial in Qatar. (Photo by AFP)

The guesthouse that Haniyeh was staying at is part of a compound reserved for retreats, secret meetings and housing prominent guests, Iranian sources told the Times.

It remains unclear how the bomb made its way to the guesthouse, but Iranian officials said the explosion is now a source of tremendous embarrassment for the IRGC.

While Tehran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the assassination, the Jewish state has remained silent on the matter, which is typically the case when it operates on Iranian soil.

Israel has been accused of carrying out several assassinations in Iran throughout the decades, including that of Massaoud Ali-Mohammadi, another nuclear scientist who was blown up by a remotely detonated bomb hooked up to a motorcycle outside his apartment in 2010.

Majid Shahriari, another nuclear scientist from the University of Tehran, was killed in a similar fashion just ten months later.

This article appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Cunning way top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed