Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike in Tehran, the Palestinian Islamist movement, at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, and the Revolutionary Guards in Iran announced on Wednesday, July 31. “(Our) brother, the leader, the mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the movement, died in a Zionist strike against his headquarters in Tehran after his participation in the inauguration of the new Iranian president” Massoud Pezeshkian, Hamas wrote in a statement.
The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Iranian Islamic Republic, announced for their part that “the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic resistance of Hamas, was hit in Tehran, and (…) he and one of his bodyguards died as martyrs”, according to a statement on their news site Sepah.
Investiture of Massoud Pezeshkian
Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in of new Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian before parliament on Tuesday, July 30. Iran, an ally of Hamas, does not recognize the Israeli state and has made support for the Palestinian cause a central element of its foreign policy since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army. In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union. Its army launched an offensive that has so far killed 39,400 people, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government, which does not provide information on the number of civilians and fighters killed.
In his inauguration speech Tuesday, Massoud Pezeshkian, a reformer, denounced Israel’s “crimes” in the Palestinian territory, while Iranians attending the ceremony chanted “Death to Israel! Death to America!” “Those who supply the weapons that kill children in Gaza cannot teach others about humanity and tolerance,” he said, referring to the United States. “Support for the cause of the oppressed Palestinian nation will continue with vigor, and no factor will be able to disrupt our will in this regard,” Pezeshkian had already said in a statement Monday.