Israel-Hamas war latest: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran says

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guard said the attack was under investigation.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 attack sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war.

The apparent assassination comes at a precarious time, as United States President Joe Biden’s administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal. Senior officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt were set to meet for the latest round of talks.

Here’s the latest:

BEIRUT — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Wednesday they were still searching for the body of a top commander targeted in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

The Iran-backed group’s first comment after the strike targeting Fouad Shukur came hours after his death Tuesday and followed the overnight strike in Tehran that killed Haniyeh. Hezbollah did not comment about the Hamas leader’s death.

Israel claimed late Tuesday that they had killed Shukur, who they said was behind a rocket attack on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths.

Hezbollah said civil defense workers were still searching for his body and others under the rubble of the building Israel struck.

Like most of Hezbollah’s military officials, little is known about Shukur, who was also known as Sayed Mohsen. Washington blames him for planning and staging the truck bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members in 1983.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said that at least two children and a woman were killed in the attack, while 74 others were wounded.

In the West Bank on Wednesday, the internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Haniyeh’s killing, calling it a “cowardly act and dangerous development.”

Political factions in the occupied territory called for strikes in protest at the killing.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh in the West Bank also condemned Haniyeh’s assassination as a “cowardly act.”

“We strongly denounce and condemn the assassination of the head of the Political Bureau, the national leader, Ismail Haniyeh,” the Palestinian Authority’s civil affairs chief wrote on X. “We consider it a cowardly act, this pushes us to remain more steadfast in the face of the occupation, and the necessity of achieving the unity of the Palestinian forces and factions.”

Hamas senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk, meanwhile, said that Haniyeh’s assassination will not go unanswered, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. He also called the assassination a cowardly act.

WASHINGTON — The apparent assassination comes at a precarious time, as United States President Joe Biden's administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage release deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome on Sunday to meet with senior officials from Israel, Qatar and Egypt in the latest round of talks. Separately, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is in the region for talks with U.S. partners.

There was no immediate reaction to the reports of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's assassination from the White House.

TEHRAN, Iran — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said early Wednesday.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guard said the attack was under investigation.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 attack.

Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.

Israel itself did not immediately comment but it often doesn’t when it comes to assassinations carried out by their Mossad intelligence agency.