Hamas Politburo Chairman Ismail Haniyeh gave an exclusive interview to Anadolu Agency on April 20, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey.
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Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards said earlier on Wednesday that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been assassinated in Tehran, with Hamas blaming Israel for the attack.
Israel vows to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders Attack on Israel on October 7 1,200 people died and about 250 people were taken hostage.
An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel often does not do this in the context of assassinations carried out by the Mossad intelligence agency.
Hamas said Haniyeh “was killed in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.”
“Hamas declares its brotherly leader Ismail Ismail Haniyeh a martyr to the great people of Palestine, to the peoples of Arab and Islamic countries and to all free peoples of the world,” the brief statement said.
In a separate statement, the organization quoted Haniyeh as saying that the Palestinian cause requires “a price to pay” and “we are ready to bear these costs: martyrdom for Palestine, for Almighty God, and for the dignity of the Palestinian people.” nationality.
Hamas officials did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and went into exile in Qatar. The top leader of Hamas in Gaza is Yehya Sinwar, who planned the October 7 attack.
In April, Israel airstrikes Gaza Killed Haniya’s three sons and his four grandchildren.
Haniyeh told Al Jazeera satellite channel at the time that the killings would not force Hamas to soften its stance in ongoing ceasefire talks with Israel.
Haniyeh in Tehran Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian He was sworn in on Tuesday along with other Hamas officials and officials from Hezbollah and its allied groups. Iran has not disclosed details of how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guards said they were investigating the attack.
Analysts on Iranian state television immediately began blaming Israel for the attack.
Haniyeh’s killing followed an Israeli operation Rare strike in BeirutHezbollah’s senior military commander Fouad Shukur was allegedly killed. Hezbollah has not confirmed Shukur’s death in the attack, which also killed at least one woman and two children and injured dozens more.
The attack comes amid escalating hostilities with Lebanese militant groups. The United States also accuses Shoukur of planning and carrying out the deadly 1983 Marine Corps bombing in the Lebanese capital.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House. The apparent assassination comes at a volatile moment as the Biden administration tries to press Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal.
CIA Director Bill Burns met with senior Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials in Rome on Sunday for the latest round of talks. Separately, White House Middle East and North Africa coordinator Brett McGurk is holding talks with U.S. partners in the region.
Israel is suspected of carrying out a years-long campaign of assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists and others linked to its atomic program. In 2020, Iran’s top military nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while driving in a car on the outskirts of Tehran.
Since the October attacks, more than 39,360 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,900 injured in Israel’s war against Hamas, according to Gaza’s health ministry, whose statistics do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
