Hamas says leader Ismail Haniyeh killed by Israel in Iran

Ismail Haniyeh. (Photo/AA)

Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, has been killed in Iran, according to a statement from Hamas and Iranian officials.

Hamas said its leader was killed early on Wednesday following an Israeli raid targeting his residence in Tehran.

In a statement, the group mourned the death of Haniyeh, 62, who it said was killed in "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president."

Haniyeh, a prominent figure in the Palestinian political and resistance group, has been a key figure before and during Israel's genocidal war on besieged Gaza.

The Iranian government announced an investigation into the killing, with results expected to be released soon.

"The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred," said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Sepah news website.

A top Hamas official described the assassination of the Hamas chief as a "cowardly act that will not go unpunished," according to Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV.

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. Israel has killed many close and extended family members of Haniyeh in its ongoing carnage in Gaza.

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 assassination carried out by its notorious Mossad intelligence agency.

Israel is suspected of running a years-long assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with its atomic programme.

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Source: TRT