Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
Iran’s statement gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed. The New York Times was the first to report the incident.Â
Iranian Presidency Office via AP
Iranian state television reported on his death early Wednesday, and analysts immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.
Israel itself did not immediately comment but it often doesn’t when it comes to assassination carried out by their Mossad intelligence agency.
Israel is suspected of running a yearslong assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic program.
In its campaign since, Israel has killed more than 39,360 Palestinians and wounded more than 90,900, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.