A top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was reportedly killed Tuesday in Tehran. Haniyeh was in the city for the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, The New York Times reported.
According to a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Haniyeh and an Iranian security guard were the targets of an attack at their residence. Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas’s political office, was reportedly killed in an Israeli raid.
This incident follows Israel’s vow to eliminate Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders after the October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The news quickly sparked reactions on social media. John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, wrote on X: “If all true (reports pointing that way) Hamas #1 leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah #2 Fuad Shukr ‘Sayyid Muhsan’ killed in the same day. Huge.”
Political analyst Omar Baddar added, “It’s one thing to assassinate Haniyeh; it’s another to do it specifically in Tehran. It’s genuinely hard to imagine, let alone put into words, the seriousness of what comes next.”
The assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran underscores the escalating tensions and the potential for further conflict in the region. As the situation develops, the implications of this high-profile killing will likely become clearer.