Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran

Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (not pictured), in Tehran, Iran on June 20, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian militant group Hamas said July 31 its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

“Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the movement said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

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“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.

Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on reports of Haniyeh’s death.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages taken during the October 7 attack, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

The attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure having become Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that year’s parliamentary election.

Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar. He had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian presidents.

Haniyeh was said to maintain good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas. He joined Hamas in 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,400 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement.

Earlier on April 10, three sons of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist group and Haniyeh’s family said.

The three sons — Hazem, Amir and Mohammad — were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp, Hamas said. Two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack and a third was wounded, Hamas media said.