According to multiple reports, the bomb that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been planted in his guesthouse in Iran two months earlier.
Haniyeh was assassinated on Tuesday after attending the inauguration of Iran's new president in Tehran. Although it was initially believed to have been an airstrike, Haniyeh was actually killed in an explosion caused by a bomb planted by assassins at a Tehran guest house two months earlier, according to five Middle Eastern officials who mourned his death. talked To the New York Times. (Related: News media secretly edits articles calling decimated Hamas leaders “hardliners” and “moderates”)
The bomb was detonated remotely upon Haniya's arrival in his guesthouse room, The Times said. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said: Said Axios reported that Israel's top intelligence agency, Mossad, planted and detonated the bomb.
Workers remove rubble the day after Israeli forces attacked a building in the southern outskirts of Beirut on July 31, 2024. Concerns have grown among Israelis about the fate of dozens of hostages still being held in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel has not claimed credit for Haniyeh's assassination, and the United States has not said publicly who it believes was behind the operation. Israel has accepted responsibility for some of its own military actions in the past, such as Monday's attack on a senior Hezbollah official in Lebanon, but Mossad operations are often shrouded in mystery and the Israeli government has remained silent.
It's unclear how the assassin managed to plant the bomb in the first place, according to The Times. The guesthouse, in an upscale neighborhood of Tehran, was run and guarded by Iran's military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The assassin slipped past IRGC security and planted the bomb in a hidden location, according to The Times. Two Iranian officials told The Times that IRGC authorities' failure to catch the assassin and to find the bomb during the months it remained hidden was a major security and intelligence failure and a blemish on the IRGC's reputation.
The bomb exploded at about 2 a.m. local time, shaking the guesthouse and causing parts to collapse, The New York Times reported. Officials and medical personnel rushed to Haniya's room and found him dead on impact, along with a bodyguard who was in the room at the time.
Haniyeh's death is a major blow to Hamas, given his high-ranking position as a political leader of the terrorist organization. Iran and Hamas immediately responded to news of Haniyeh's death by blaming Israel and vowing revenge. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly ordered direct attacks on Israeli soil in retaliation, but the scale and timing of such attacks are unclear, according to The New York Times.
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