Death awaited Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for more than two months.
Death awaited Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for more than two months. A bomb was secretly smuggled into the guest house in Iran where he was expected to arrive, reports The New York Times citing several officials from the US, Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
He had been hiding in a guesthouse in a posh location in Tehran, protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – for about two months. The guesthouse was inside a large complex used by the IRGC for its secret meetings and to house important guests.
The wait, however, was long and fruitful.
Haniyeh, a top Hamas negotiator who led its political delegation in Qatar, arrived in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
On Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that he was in his room at the inn and the killers detonated the bomb remotely, the NYT reported. The explosion shook the building. A part of the wall collapsed. The windows were broken.
Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in what Hamas called a “treacherous Zionist attack on his residence in Tehran.” The Palestinian group involved in deadly fighting over Israel’s campaign in Gaza called it a “serious escalation” as it accused Israel of the murder.
The assassination of the head of Hamas threatened to disrupt negotiations to end the war and trigger another wave of violence.
Israel has not yet accepted responsibility. But the report states that Israeli intelligence officials shared details about the covert operation with Western officials in the immediate period.
The US’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, denied that the US had prior knowledge of the assassination plot.
It was previously speculated that Haniyeh was killed in a missile attack, but the missile theory raised questions about how Israel avoided air defense systems in the Iranian capital. The damage caused was minimal, much less than a missile attack would have caused.
The report concluded that the killers managed to find a breach in Iranian security to smuggle the bomb, although it remains unclear how they managed to keep it hidden for two months.
There were rumors of witnesses seeing a missile-like object hitting Haniyeh’s bedroom window, but Iranian authorities confirmed that the explosion occurred inside the bedroom and that the bomb was placed in advance.
According to Middle Eastern officials, planning took months and detailed surveillance of the complex was required. The planning was so precise that the room next door, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah was staying, was not badly damaged.
The assassination caused enormous embarrassment to Iranian authorities who have not yet discovered how or when the bombs were planted.
A medical team housed in the complex pronounced Haniyeh dead. They were also unable to revive the bodyguard.
Israel’s foreign intelligence and spy agency, Mossad, is primarily tasked with assassinations outside the country. Mossad chief David Barnea vowed to hunt down Hamas leaders after the October 7 attacks.
He said it would take time, as it did after the Munich massacre, to reach Palestinian leaders.
Barnea was referring to the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian agents at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The Mossad activated its hit squad to carry out the covert operation ‘Operation Wrath of God’, codenamed Bayonet, to avenge the murders.
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
