Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed by a pre-dawn air strike in the Iranian capital, Iran and the militant group say, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that risks escalating the conflict even as the US and other nations scramble to prevent an all-out regional war.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
The strike on Wednesday came just after Haniyeh attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran and only hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran's ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The assassination of Hamas’ top political leader is potentially explosive amid the region's conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in Tehran.
Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates.
“We consider his revenge as our duty,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement, adding Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing "a dear guest in our home".
Bitter regional rivals, Israel and Iran risked plunging into war when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April.
Iran retaliated and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other's soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle.
Haniyeh's killing could also prompt Hamas to pull out of negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 10-month-old war in Gaza, which US mediators had said were making progress.
And it could inflame already heightening tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which international diplomats were trying to contain after a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Israel carried out a rare strike in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday night that it said killed a top Hezbollah commander allegedly behind the strike.
Hezbollah, which denied any role in the Golan attack, said it was still searching for the body of Fouad Shukur in the rubble of the building that was hit in Beirut, killing two women and two children.
The White House had no immediate reaction to the killing of Haniyeh.
Asked about the killing during a visit to Singapore, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "This is something we were not aware of or involved in.”
Blinken said he would not speculate about the impact on ceasefire efforts, "but I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains”.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement that Israel did not want war after its strike on the Hezbollah commander in Beirut, “but we are preparing for all possibilities”.
He did not mention the Haniyeh killing.
Israel has specifically targeted Hamas' top leadership in Gaza, who are believed to be primarily responsible for planning the October 7 attack, after nearly 10 months of fighting in the enclave.
Israel carried out a strike in Gaza earlier in July targeting the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, killing at least 90 Palestinians living in nearby tents, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel said it believed Deif was killed, but his death has not been confirmed.
More elusive has been Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of Hamas' brutal surprise assault into southern Israel, during which militants killed some 1200 people and abducted 250 others.
Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in Qatar.
During Haniyeh's last hours in Iran - a close ally of Hamas - he was smiling and clapping at the inauguration ceremony of the new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Hours later, the strike hit a residence Haniyeh uses in Tehran, killing him, Hamas said.
One of his bodyguards was also killed, Iranian officials said.
Hamas’ military wing said Haniyeh’s assassination “takes the battle to new dimensions and will have major repercussions on the entire region”.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 39,360 Palestinians and wounded more than 90,900, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
