Hamas terrorist group confirmed the death of its leader Ismail Haniyeh in an attack in Tehran

Europa Press

Tehran.-The Hamas terrorist group confirmed the death of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in an attack in Tehran, where he was on an official visit.

“Brother leader, martyr fighter Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the movement, died as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president,” the group confirmed in a statement.

The news was also spread by the Iranian regime through its army, which confirmed that one of the Palestinian leader’s bodyguards was also killed in the attack.

“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Hamas, was attacked in Tehran and as a result of this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement on the news page of this branch of the Iranian armed forces.

Haniyeh, 61, had traveled to Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, Masud Pezeshkian, on Tuesday.

The news of Haniyeh’s death comes just hours after Israel confirmed it had killed Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr, the group’s “highest-ranking military chief” and a close adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel has blamed Shukr, considered Hezbollah’s chief of staff, for the deaths of thousands of Israeli civilians over the years, including 12 children killed in a rocket attack on Saturday in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

The death of the Hamas leader in Tehran, where he had attended the inauguration of the new president and felt safe under the protection of the regime, is putting regional alliances to the test. The inauguration party was reflected in several videos broadcast by the state press and among the warm greetings that Masoud Pezeshkian received that day was that of Haniyeh, shortly before he died in his residence in the Persian capital.

Middle Eastern sources told Infobae that the timing of the operation against the terrorist leader is not a minor issue, as will be the reactions of his major regional allies.

Among them is Turkey’s president, Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who condemned and cursed the attack, calling it a “treacherous” and “cowardly act, aimed at undermining the Palestinian cause.”

It is unclear how far the thirst for revenge against Israel expressed by both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Erdogan himself, who blame that country for the attack on Haniyeh, will go this time. Local analysts consulted point out that the United States has improved its positions near the Persian Gulf and has reiterated that it is always ready to defend Israel, a declared enemy of Iran and its terrorist militias.

Haniyeh was born in the Al Shati refugee camp in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip in 1962. He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he first became involved with Hamas, and graduated with a degree in Arabic literature in 1987.

He was appointed to head an office of the terrorist group in 1997, and rose through the ranks of the organization.

He headed the Hamas list that won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and became Palestinian prime minister in a national unity government with President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah, but long-standing disagreements between the two parties led to Fatah being expelled from the Strip and the Islamists taking power by force in the enclave, which they have ruled de facto since 2007.

He was the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from 2006 until February 2017, when he was replaced by Yahya Sinwar, considered the mastermind of the October 7 attacks and the real power in the group, who had the final say in recent negotiations with Israel for a truce.

A few months later, on May 6, 2017, Haniyeh was elected chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, replacing Khaled Mashal; he moved from the Strip to Qatar, from where he was in charge of the leadership and representation of the Islamist group, especially in the international arena.Infobae.