The bomb that took out the Hamas chief was planted in the Tehran some two months in advance, sources told The New York Times
The assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was carried with an explosive device placed ahead of time in the Tehran guesthouse he was occupying, The New York Times (NYT) wrote on Thursday, citing Middle Eastern officials.
Haniyeh, the head of the Gaza-based militant group’s political bureau, was killed in the Iranian capital on Wednesday. Both Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the attack, with the latter claiming that Haniyeh was taken out by a missile strike. West Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied their involvement.
The top Hamas official was assassinated with a remotely detonated bomb smuggled into the guesthouse he was staying at in, NYT said after talking to seven officials in the Middle East on the condition of anonymity, among them two Iranians and a US official.
The building is part of a larger guarded compound in the Iranian capital, run and guarded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The explosive device was slipped in and hidden in the building approximately two months ago, NYT wrote, citing five of their sources. The bomb exploded in Haniyeh’s room, blew out some of the windows and partially collapsed an exterior wall, the newspaper cited two members of the IRGC.
Tehran and Hamas have accused West Jerusalem of carrying out the assassination. While the Jewish state has not publicly acknowledged this, “Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation” in its immediate aftermath, five of their sources told NYT.
David Barnea, the head the Israeli foreign intelligence agency Mossad, promised to take out anyone involved with planning or participating in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The militant group had killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage on that day.
The subsequent Israel-Hamas war has seen spiraling tensions in the wider Middle East. Tehran and West Jerusalem have exchanged direct fire earlier in the year after Israel struck an Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
Wednesday’s killing of the top Hamas official in the heart of the Iranian capital has seen tensions spike. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the IRGC have publicly condemned the killing and promised retaliation.
