Israel has assassinated Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran overnight, apparently using a drone according to Iran Nour News Agency. This came hours after an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburb targeting Hezbollah senior figure Fuad Shukr.
Both moves are a major escalation by Israel that could trigger a major response from the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance that counts in its ranks Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iran’s Popular Mobilization Forces among others.
Haniyeh was being hosted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and reportedly stayed in a building of Iran army veterans. Reports suggest Palestinian Islamic Jihad official Ziad Nakhaleh was in the same building.
Iranian reports say that the air strike occurred around 2am local time.
In the first official Iranian response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, chief of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani expressed condolences to the Palestinian people, Hamas, all Palestinian resistance factions, and the nations supporting the Palestinian cause.
The Iranian spokesperson also stated that Haniyeh’s “martyrdom” would strengthen the close and deep relationship between Iran and Palestine and its resistance more than ever before.
Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian in parliament. He had met with Pezeshkian as well as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Haniyeh, who resided in Qatar, had long been a target for Israel, with Tel Aviv having killed three sons and four grandchildren of the Hamas leader in Gaza in April.
Fuad Shukr fate unknown
In Beirut, Hezbollah confirmed that Fuad Shukr, a senior military advisor, was present in the building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb on Tuesday night. The group has not yet disclosed Shukr’s condition, despite Israeli military claims that they had successfully assassinated him.
This is a developing story and will be updated through the day
