How was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed? Here's what we know so far

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, according to Iranian state media and the Palestinian militant group

Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday, citing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to Hamas, Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli "raid" on his residence.

The Associated Press reported that Hamas has blamed an Israeli airstrike for Haniyeh's death. At the time of filing, the news agency said that an Israeli military spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the report, Hamas said that Haniyeh was killed "in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran", after the Hamas political leader attended the swearing-in of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday, along with other Hamas and Hezbollah officials.

Subsequently, the Times of Israel reported that an Iranian source had told the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese al Mayadeen news site that a missile fired from outside of Iran was used to kill Haniyeh in Tehran. The source reportedly stressed that the missile was not fired from within Iran.

While the IRGC had earlier said that it was still investigating the attack and could not say how it occurred, Iranian media eventually confirmed that Haniyeh was killed by an airstrike.

 

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said that Haniyeh was staying in one of the special residences for war veterans in north Tehran, "when he was martyred by an air-launched missile".

While nobody had claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's killing at the time of filing, analysts on Iranian state television immediately blamed Israel for the attack.

Israel has not officially commented on the killing, but the country is widely suspected of running a years-long assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists associated with its atomic programme.

In the wake of the killing, Iran held an emergency meeting of its Supreme National Security Council at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's residence on Wednesday, the New York Times (NYT) reported, citing two Iranian officials.

Explaining that such a meeting is only conducted during "extraordinary circumstances", the report said that Esmail Ghaani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, which oversees Tehran's proxies, was also at the meeting.

Quoting Iranian state TV, the report said that Haniyeh's killing would delay the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal by several months and lead to a retaliation from Iran-backed groups in the region. The report added that these statements by Iranian state TV reflected the views of Khamenei and the government.

(With agency input)