The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed along with one of his bodyguards in Tehran, Iran.
Haniyeh, 62, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, resided in Qatar throughout the Israel-Hamas war and was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. His death was announced by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and confirmed by Hamas in the early hours of Wednesday, local time. Hamas immediately blamed Israel for his death.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns the sons of our great Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation, and all the free people of the world: the brother leader, martyr, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, head of the movement, who was killed as a result of a Zionist raid,” Hamas announced on its Telegram channel. “He left his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president. We belong to God and to Him we shall return, and indeed it is a jihad, victory or martyrdom of the Islamic Resistance Movement.”
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Haniyeh is believed to be at least the second leader of one of the Middle East terrorist groups that Iran supports and has ties to, CNN reported. On Tuesday, in Lebanon, Israel confirmed it killed Fu’ad Shukr, one of “Hezbollah’s most senior military commanders.” Among other terrorist acts, Shukr was also known as the mastermind behind the 1983 bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 U.S. troops.
“Today, July 30, 2024, in a targeted, intelligence-based elimination, Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukr,” Israel’s military said in a statement.
In April, three of Haniyeh’s sons and three of his grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike. He claimed that 60 of his family members had been killed in the war since Oct. 7.
Hamas sympathizers, Palestinian factions, and other pro-Palestinian supporters in the West Bank sought a response to Haniyeh’s death. Organizers in the region encouraged people to engage in protests, marches, and a strike on Wednesday as a response, according to multiple reports.
“The national and Islamic factions in Palestine announce a comprehensive strike and anger marches to (protest) the assassination of the great national leader Ismail Haniyeh, which came in the framework of Zionist state terrorism and its war of extermination,” read a statement from Palestinian factions.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian released a statement in response to the strike, the Times of Israel reported. He announced that his country would “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act.”