1. Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed early Wednesday after his residence in Tehran was targeted, according to a statement by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as reported by Reuters.
2. Hamas, the Palestinian group engaged in conflict with Israel in Gaza, claimed that an “Israeli” raid killed Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards at his Tehran residence.
3. In a statement, Hamas described Haniyeh’s death as the result of “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”
Tehran, July 31: Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed early Wednesday after his residence in Tehran was targeted, according to a statement by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as reported by Reuters.
Hamas, the Palestinian group engaged in conflict with Israel in Gaza, claimed that an “Israeli” raid killed Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards at his Tehran residence.
In a statement, Hamas described Haniyeh’s death as the result of “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”
Following Haniyeh’s killing, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council convened an emergency meeting at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s residence, a rare occurrence reserved for extraordinary situations, according to US media citing two Iranian officials. The meeting included the chief of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.
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On Tuesday, Haniyeh, who directed Hamas’s political operations from exile in Qatar, attended the inauguration of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel stated its military was “fully prepared for any scenario,” The New York Times reported. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, “We prefer to resolve hostilities without a wider war.”
During the Israel-Gaza conflict, Haniyeh played a role as a negotiator in ceasefire talks. Hamas alleged in April that Israeli airstrikes had killed three of Haniyeh’s sons and four of his grandchildren.
Hamas’s military wing is led by Yahya Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
The news of Haniyeh’s death follows the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) claim of killing Fuad Shukr, a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, who Israel said was responsible for a drone strike that killed 12 children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Who Was Ismail Haniyeh?
The 62-year-old Haniyeh was born in a refugee camp near Gaza City. He joined Hamas in the late 1980s, quickly rising through the ranks to become a close associate of Hamas’s founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Haniyeh served multiple sentences in Israeli prisons during the 1980s and 1990s. After Hamas’s victory in the 2006 legislative election, he became the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority government but was dismissed by President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
In 2017, Haniyeh was elected head of Hamas’s political wing. That same year, he was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” by the United States.