Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh reportedly assassinated

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday, but no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israel was immediately accused of responsibility for the assassination after vowing to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the terror group's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state that left 1,200 people dead and about 250 others kidnapped, according to the Associated Press.

Haniyeh was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday. Pezeshkian took the oath amid chants of “Death to America, Death to Israel.”

On Tuesday morning, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted on the social media platform X that he had met with Haniyah and the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah.

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Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, speaks to reporters after his meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 2021. (AP)

Iran has not provided any details on the circumstances of Haniyeh's death. The incident is under investigation.

Iranian state television analysts immediately blamed the assassination on Israel.

Israel did not immediately comment, but it does not typically comment publicly on assassinations carried out by its intelligence agency, Mossad.

“The fact that such a senior Hamas leader was assassinated on Iranian soil was an added bonus for Israel, especially immediately after its participation in the inauguration of the Islamic Republic’s new president,” Lisa Daftari, a Middle East analyst and editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, told Fox News.

“This sends a clear message: Israel does not distinguish between the Islamic Republic and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah.”

“We have seen Israel conduct very targeted and strategic strikes against key players in the Islamic Republic, such as nuclear scientists,” Daftari continued. “We have also seen Israel conduct targeted strikes against weapons depots and other critical infrastructure in Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

“Given the many threats facing Israel, it was forced to use its military and intelligence capabilities to identify direct threats and eliminate them strategically. We assume at this stage that Haniyeh's assassination was carried out according to the same calculations.”

Hamas said Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after he attended the inauguration of Iran's new president.”

“Hamas declares to the great Palestinian people, to the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nations and to all free peoples of the world, the brother leader Ismail Haniyeh a martyr,” the statement said.

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President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, shakes hands with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the start of their meeting at the president's office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP)

The group, in another statement, quoted Haniyeh as saying that the Palestinian cause has a “cost” and that “we are ready to bear this cost: martyrdom for the sake of Palestine, for the sake of God Almighty and for the sake of the dignity of this nation.”

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip five years ago and lives in exile in Qatar. The main Hamas leader in Gaza is Yehya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack on Israel.

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In April, an Israeli airstrike killed three of Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandchildren in Gaza.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded in the Gaza war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, although the count does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.