The assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was carried out with an explosive device planted in a Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, the New York Times wrote on Thursday, citing officials in the Middle East.
Haniyeh, the head of the Gaza-based militant group’s political bureau, was killed in the Iranian capital on Wednesday. Both Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the attack, with the latter claiming that Haniyeh was taken out by a missile strike. West Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
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The top Hamas official was assassinated with a remotely detonated bomb smuggled into the guesthouse, the NYT said after talking to seven officials in the Middle East on condition of anonymity, among them two Iranians and a US official.
The building is part of a larger guarded compound in the Iranian capital, run and guarded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The explosive device was slipped in and hidden in the building approximately two months ago, the NYT wrote, citing five sources. The bomb exploded in Haniyeh’s room, blew out some of the windows, and partially collapsed an exterior wall, the newspaper cited two members of the IRGC as saying.
Tehran and Hamas have accused West Jerusalem of carrying out the assassination. While the Jewish state has not publicly acknowledged this, “Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation” in the immediate aftermath, five sources told the NYT.
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David Barnea, the head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, promised to take out anyone involved in planning or participating in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The militant group killed around 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages on that day.
The subsequent Israel-Hamas war has seen spiraling tensions in the wider Middle East. Iran and Israel exchanged direct fire earlier this year after Israel struck an Iranian Embassy compound in Syria.
Tensions have spiked following the killing of the top Hamas official in the heart of Tehran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the IRGC have publicly condemned the killing and promised retaliation.