Iran Vows Revenge After Israel Assassinates Hamas Political Head in Tehran

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s most senior political official, was assassinated in a missile strike on his residence in Tehran yesterday, early in the morning. His bodyguard, who was with him at the time, was also killed.

Officials from Hamas said the brutal attack was so targeted the missile literally struck Haniyeh directly in his body.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Hamas issued a formal statement confirming Haniyeh’s death soon after the strike yesterday.

“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns to our great Palestinian people, to the Arab and Islamic nation, and to all the free people of the world: brother, leader, martyr, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, who was killed in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran,” the statement read.

In parallel with the event, proxies representing Haniyeh and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were, according to U.S. representatives, just “days away” from concluding a ceasefire and hostage-swap deal in Gaza. If it had proceeded as planned, the U.S. was claiming it could have led to an end to the war.

Few besides the U.S. believed Netanyahu had any intention of agreeing to a ceasefire. And now, with the assassination of Haniyeh yesterday, there is solid proof Netanyahu’s negotiating was just another ruse which would lead to more bloodshed in Gaza.

Just a day before, Israel ran a separate airstrike in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon.  That one targeted and appears to have killed Muhsin Shukr, Hezbollah’s most senior military official. That attack was a direct reprisal for rocket blasts which killed at least 12, mostly youths, and injured over 42 on a soccer field on July 27, in the Druze (Arabic) city of Majdal Shams, in northern Israel.

Israel claimed the attack on the soccer field was a deliberate and direct attack by Hezbollah forces using an Iranian-made Falaq-1 missile. Hezbollah denied it had anything to do with the blast at Majdal Shams. It also claimed the rocket that landed on the soccer field was probably live debris from Israel’s Iron Dome rockets, which had fallen from the sky after attempting to defend against incoming missiles.

Regardless of the truth, Israeli Defense Forces went ahead and ran the assassination run on Muhsin Shukr with brutal effectiveness. It also drew extensive condemnation from the acting prime minister of Lebanon, who called Israel’s strike there a “criminal act”.

Netanyahu has not yet specifically claimed the murder of Haniyeh in Iran as something his country was responsible for. But after that most recent attack, he did issue a threat saying his country would” exact a heavy price for any aggression against us from any arena”.

He added that Israel is “prepared for any scenario” which might happen next.

Soon after Haniyeh’s death was announced, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set the tone for his country’s response, declaring that going after those responsible for the killing was “Tehran’s duty”.

“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our house and made us bereaved,” Khamenei’s formal statement continued.

He added that Israel’s action had “also prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself.”

The new Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, added to that, saying that Iran would “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act”.

Deputy Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk told reporters at al-Aqsa TV that the airstrike which killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard was a “cowardly act which will not go unpunished.”

Israel notably has refused either to confirm or deny it had anything to do with Haniyeh’s assassination.

“We are not commenting on that particular incident,” said Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer in a briefing for reporters yesterday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said to the press in Singapore yesterday about the killing only that, “This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It’s very hard to speculate.”

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, denounced Haniyeh’s killing.

In Qatar, the foreign ministry called the murder of Haniyeh a “shameful assassination”.

In Turkey, where its president has all but threatened its own invasion of Israel, the government also condemned this most recent attack.

Egypt responded also expressed anger and dismay at the attack. It this showed Israel had no intent to de-escalate the war in Gaza.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called the killings both in Tehran yesterday and in Beirut the day before a “dangerous escalation”.

The United Nations Security Council will be meeting today in emergency session to discuss the attack in Tehran yesterday. The purpose will be to attempt to cool down all responses to the recent attacks, though getting that to happen seems unlikely.