Ismail Haniyeh, political head of the Hamas movement, will meet Turkey's leader on Saturday
Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of the Hamas movement, was killed Wednesday in Iran, Hamas and the IRGC said. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Hamas said Haniyeh was assassinated in a 'Zionist raid'
  • Aside from Haniyeh, one of his bodyguards was also killed
  • The Hamas chief was in Iran to attend the Iranian president-elect's inauguration

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran Wednesday, the Palestinian terror group Hamas said. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also confirmed Haniyeh's killing.

Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when the Hamas chief's residence in Tehran was attacked, the IRGC said, as per Iranian outlet Press TV. He was in Iran to attend the inauguration of Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian, as per the report. The IRGC said it is investigating the assassination.

Hamas' statement said Haniyeh was killed "in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran," as per a Reuters report.

Israel has yet to comment on Haniyeh's killing.

Haniyeh's assassination came just a day after Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, resulting in the killing of a senior commander of the Lebanese Iran-backed militia.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas' political bureau, said Haniyeh's assassination "will not pass in vain." He also slammed the attack as "a cowardly act."

Hussein Al-Sheikh, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee, denounced the killing, saying the group "strongly" condemned Haniyeh's assassination. "We consider it a cowardly act, this pushes us to remain more steadfast in the face of occupation, and the necessity of achieving the unity of the Palestinian forces and factions," he wrote in a statement Wednesday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the attack, saying it was a "serious escalation" of the already fraught relations between Israel and the Palestinian people.

"He urged our people and their forces to unite, remain patient, and stand firm against the Israeli occupation," Abbas' office said in a statement cited by local media.

Haniyeh's death was announced about three months after three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. In a statement following the confirmation of his sons' killings, Haniyeh said Palestine "paid a heavy price; I am one of them."

In the same month as the killing of Haniyeh's three sons, his sister, Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, was arrested by Israeli police as part of an investigation in southern Israel that involved Israel's security agency, Shin Bet.

Haniyeh has been a long-time member of Hamas. After climbing the ranks since joining the militant group in the late 1980s, Haniyeh was considered to have played a key role in international mediations during stalled ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

His killing has become the top assassination attack on a Hamas leader after Saleh Al-Arouri, the militant group's deputy leader, was assassinated in Lebanon earlier this year.

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