New Delhi: The cause of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh’s death Wednesday was a bomb smuggled into the guest house in Tehran two months ago, The New York Times has reported, based on testimonies of seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official. Haniyeh, who served as Hamas’ political chief since 2017 and as the prime minister of Palestine between 2006 and 2007, was assassinated Wednesday.
The guest house in an upscale neighbourhood of Tehran is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Haniyeh used to frequent this guesthouse on his visits to the country.
The Hamas leader was in Iran this week to attend the inauguration of the newly elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Upon confirmation that Haniyeh was in his room, the explosive was detonated remotely, and went off at 2 am local time, the paper reported. It claimed the life of the Hamas leader and his bodyguard while also causing minimal damage to the structure as the “explosion shook the building, shattered some windows, and caused the partial collapse of an exterior wall.”
The NYT also suggested “precise planning” behind the killing of Haniyeh as minimum damage to the building structure was done, nor were any other dignitaries living in the guest house injured.
A security breach where a bomb could be hidden in Tehran at a property under the supervision of the revolutionary guards, has exposed a “failure of intelligence and security for the country,” especially at a time when security was heightened and leaders from 86 countries had gathered for the inauguration.
“The assassins were able to exploit a different kind of gap in Iran’s defenses: a lapse in the security of a supposedly tightly guarded compound that allowed a bomb to be planted and to remain hidden for many weeks before it would eventually be triggered,” The New York Times reported
Other speculations include the possibility of a missile attack. However, nothing has been confirmed by official channels yet. Hamas and Iranian leaders have blamed Israel for the killing of Haniyeh amid the ongoing war in Gaza. At the emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Wednesday morning, shortly after Iran announced that Haniyeh had been killed, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a direct strike on Israel.
Israeli officials have on multiple occasions called for the “hunting down” of Hamas leaders. The head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, David Barnea promised to “catch them wherever they are”. Haniyeh was designated as a terrorist by the US in 2018 and had been living outside Gaza since 2019. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has called the assassination a “significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas.”
(Edited by Zinnia Ray)
Also read: Haniyeh killing ‘disaster’ for Tehran, could impair Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks