Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh spent his final hours at the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at a ceremony in Tehran before being mercilessly assassinated in a suspected Israeli rocket attack.
The 62-year-old Hamas political leader was seen smiling and flashing the peace sign yesterday as he mingled with Iranian dignitaries at the swearing-in ceremony.
He then met with Pezeshkian — his first and only official conversation with the new president before he was assassinated — and with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has since vowed revenge for Haniyeh.
Video footage captured the moment Haniyeh spoke to Pezeshkian, as the two embraced in front of the cameras in a clear signal of the enduring ties between the Islamic Republic and the Palestinian group.
After the meetings, Haniyeh was escorted by guards to his residence, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound in the capital, where Hamas sources said he was staying with Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad Nakhalah.
Sitting in an IRGC safe house, surrounded by guards in the Iranian capital, Haniyeh likely felt completely safe and had no idea what was going to happen to him.
It is believed that Israeli forces launched a daring rocket attack on the building during the night, killing the Hamas leader as he slept in his bed. However, Nakhalah is believed to have escaped the blast.
Video footage captured the moment Haniyeh spoke to new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as the two embraced for the cameras
In this photo released by the Iranian presidential office, President Masoud Pezeshkian (right) shakes hands with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the start of their meeting at the president’s office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Iranian presidential office via AP)
The supreme leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, attends the swearing-in ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the parliament in Tehran
Hours of Death: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Ismail Haniyeh (L) before Israel’s deadly attack on the Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024
The killing of Haniyeh, confirmed by both Hamas and Iranian authorities, is the highest-profile assassination since October 7 and could mark a turning point in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group.
Concerns have also emerged that Hamas’s regional allies — Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — could attack Israel, sparking further violence in the region.
“Brother leader, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist attack on his residence in Tehran after taking part in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” Hamas said in a statement.
Musa Abu Marzuk, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said: “The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh is a cowardly act and will not go unanswered.‘
Iran’s National Security Council said today that “the elimination of Haniyeh has crossed a line and Israel will have to pay a high price for it.” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared that it was Iran’s “duty to avenge Haniyeh” because “he was martyred on our soil.”
The killing of the Hamas leader at an IRGC residence in the capital is a humiliating blow to the Islamic Republic and will likely lead to severe retaliation.
Iran earlier this year sent a barrage of missiles and drones into Israel after Tel Aviv attacked the Iranian embassy in Syria in April.
Meanwhile, international observers have raised alarms that Hamas could pull out of months of ceasefire negotiations in Gaza as the Palestinian death toll approaches 40,000.
Haniyeh’s death makes him the latest and highest-ranking Hamas official killed by Israel since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.
At least ten of Haniyeh’s relatives, including his sister, were killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year.
The attack last month hit the Haniyeh family’s home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
The attack came just weeks after Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli airstrike on their car nearby.
Before their deaths, Haniyeh was said to have had 13 sons and daughters. The Qatar-based Hamas leader said at the time that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.
Haniyeh is seen meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the day of his assassination
After his meetings, Haniyeh was escorted by guards to his residence: an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps residence in the capital.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhala and Palestinian Hamas group leader Ismail Haniyeh attend the swearing-in ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024.
Israeli forces seized the opportunity to hit Haniyeh and carried out a daring rocket attack on his Tehran residence just hours after the event, killing the Hamas leader and a security guard.
While Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, is seen as the mastermind behind the attacks, Haniyeh, who is seen as a more pragmatic force within Hamas, praised the attacks as a humiliating blow to Israel’s aura of invincibility.
“The flooding of Al-Aqsa was an earthquake that struck the heart of the Zionist entity and brought about great changes at the global level,” Haniyeh said in a speech in Iran at the funeral of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May.
“We will continue the resistance against this enemy until we liberate our land, all of our land,” Haniyeh said.
Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s October 7 attacks. Mossad chief David Barnea even declared in January that Israel was “determined to settle the score with the murderers who stormed the Gaza area.”
But Haniyeh had vowed to fight Israel to the end. Hamas quoted him in a statement as saying that the Palestinian cause has “a price tag” and that “we are prepared to pay this price: martyrdom for the sake of Palestine, for the sake of Almighty God and for the sake of the dignity of this nation.”
Haniyeh was also under the supervision of the International Criminal Court. The court’s chief prosecutor had issued arrest warrants for him and two other Hamas leaders, Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Similar requests were made to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Haniyeh has been living in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019, but the threats against him have not stopped him from traveling.
He was said to have maintained good relations with leaders of various Palestinian factions, including rivals of Hamas, to consolidate Hamas’s power base in Gaza. He was also the group’s international face, traveling from Doha to Tehran and Ankara to maintain strong ties with regional allies.
