Hamas accused Israel of assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, and Iran vowed to retaliate. Israel has not talked about the killing.
Here’s the latest on the assassination.
Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders, was assassinated in Iran, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas said on Wednesday, a severe blow to the Palestinian group that threatens to engulf the region in further conflict.
Both Iran and Hamas accused Israel of killing Mr. Haniyeh, who led the group’s political operations from exile in Qatar. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Iran, Hamas’s main backer, and it was not clear how the killing was carried out.
Hours before the assassination, Israel said it had struck Fuad Shukr, a senior member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia that is also backed by Iran and has been fighting a low-level war with Israel since October. The two strikes have suddenly shifted the calculus in the Middle East, after a month in which Israel and Hamas had appeared to edge closer to a cease-fire in Gaza. Such a deal was expected to lead to a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
Now, the focus is on how Hamas and Hezbollah will respond to the attacks on their leaders; how Iran will react to a strike on its territory; and whether either reaction leads to the outbreak of a wider regional war. An Israeli strike on Iranian commanders in Syria in April led Iran to fire hundreds of missiles at Israel. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Haniyeh’s assassination would prompt a “harsh punishment.”
Mr. Haniyeh was a key figure in Hamas’s cease-fire negotiations with Israel, and his assassination makes the prospects for a deal even more unclear. The United States was not informed of the strike that killed Mr. Haniyeh ahead of time, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said during a trip to Singapore on Wednesday, adding that the Biden administration was continuing to focus on de-escalating the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s military has not commented on Mr. Haniyeh’s death and said it does not respond to reports in the foreign news media. In recent years it has carried out a number of high-profile assassinations in Iran, rattling the country’s leaders and prompting a security overhaul including the ouster of a top security official.
Here’s what else to know:
- While Israel rarely comments on its actions in Iran, it is usually more open about its strikes in Lebanon. On Tuesday night, the Israeli military swiftly announced a separate strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Mr. Shukr, who it described as a senior commander responsible for a strike on Saturday that killed 12 children and teenagers in an Israeli-controlled town. It is unclear how Hezbollah will respond to a particularly brazen strike on a senior commander in the Lebanese capital.
- Mr. Haniyeh had long played a central role in Hamas, helping lead the group through multiple wars with Israel and through elections, though it is unclear how much control he and other exiled Hamas political leaders exercised over the group’s leaders in Gaza and its military wing, which carried out the Oct. 7 attack. Read the full obituary here.
- Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, takes office facing the major security breach of failing to protect an ally. It raises questions about the safety of Iran’s top leaders who were in close contact with Mr. Haniyeh. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with him on Tuesday.
Gabby Sobelman, Isabel Kershner and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.