Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was killed on Wednesday by an explosive device secretly smuggled into the Tehran apartment where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians and one United States (U.S.) official.
The bomb was hidden in the apartment about two months ago, some sources claimed. The apartment is managed and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is part of a large complex known as Neshat, located in an upscale neighborhood in northern Tehran.
Haniyeh was in the Iranian capital for a presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely after confirming that he was in his room in the guesthouse. The explosion also killed his bodyguard, according to some sources.
The explosion shook the building, broke some windows, and caused the partial collapse of the outer wall. This damage is visible in a photograph of the building.
Haniyeh, who led Hamas’s political office in Qatar, had stayed in the apartment several times when visiting Tehran.
Iranian officials and Hamas stated on Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the assassination, a view shared by several U.S. officials who wished to remain anonymous. The assassination threatened to trigger another wave of violence in the Middle East and disrupt ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Haniyeh was a key negotiator in the ceasefire talks.
He was not killed by a missile
Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the killing, but Israeli intelligence officials informed the U.S. and other Western governments about the details of the operation shortly afterward.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that the U.S. had no advance knowledge of the assassination plot.
In the hours after the killing, speculation immediately focused on the possibility that Israel had killed Haniyeh with a missile, likely fired from a drone or aircraft, similar to how Israel launched a missile at a military base in Isfahan in April.
This missile theory raised questions about how Israel could have once again evaded Iranian air defense systems to carry out such a daring airstrike on the capital.
It turned out that the assassins might have exploited a different kind of gap in Iran’s defense: a security lapse in the supposedly well-guarded complex that allowed a bomb to be planted and remain hidden for weeks before finally being detonated.
Months of planning
It remains unclear how the bomb was hidden in the guesthouse. Officials said the assassination plot took months to plan and required extensive surveillance of the complex. Two Iranian officials who described the nature of the assassination said they did not know how or when the explosive was placed in the room.
Israel decided to carry out the assassination outside Qatar, where Haniyeh and other senior members of Hamas’s political leadership reside. The Qatari government mediates negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The deadly explosion early Wednesday shattered windows and brought down part of the wall of the complex, according to photos and statements by Iranian officials. The blast caused minimal damage outside the building itself, unlike what a missile would likely have done.
Around 2 a.m. local time, the device exploded. Surprised staff members of the building rushed to find the source of the loud noise, leading them to the room where Haniyeh and his bodyguard were staying.
The leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, was staying in a neighboring house. His room was not severely damaged, indicating precise planning in targeting Haniyeh.
In Iran, the method of the assassination was the subject of rumors and disputes. The Tasnim news agency, a media outlet of the IRGC, reported that witnesses said an object resembling a missile hit Haniyeh’s room window and exploded.
But IRGC members familiar with the attack confirmed that the explosion occurred in Haniyeh’s room and said the initial investigation showed that the explosive had been planted there some time in advance.
They described the precision and sophistication of the attack as similar to the tactics of the remotely controlled, AI-powered robotic weapon Israel used to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020.
Israel’s overseas assassination operations are primarily conducted by the Mossad, the state’s foreign intelligence service. David Barnea, the head of Mossad, said in January that his agency was “obligated” to hunt down Hamas leaders, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
