Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 02:09 pm
Washington – A deadly plot was in place for over two months, against the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, within the city of Tehran. According to The New York Times with several U.S and Middle Eastern officials, a bomb was secretly smuggled into the guesthouse where Haniyeh was expected to stay.
The bomb was planted in a guesthouse located in an upmarket area of Tehran, in a large walled compound that was heavily guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The sizeable compound and the guesthouse were to play host, for nearly two months, to the Iranian agents’ secret meetings and the guests whom they deemed as crucial.
Haniyeh, one of Hamas’s key negotiators in Qatar, went to Tehran to attend the swearing-in of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. On Tuesday morning, when the assassins received confirmation that he had reached his room, the bomb planted there was detonated remotely, according to the NYT. A powerful explosion shook the building-a part of the wall collapsed, windows were broken.
Haniyeh and his bodyguard died from the explosion, which Hamas in Gaza claimed was due to a “treacherous Zionist raid” on his residence in Tehran. The Palestinian group, embroiled in a deadly clash over Israel’s Gaza campaign, described it as a “grave escalation” and held Israel responsible for the assassination.
Immediate Aftermath:
The killing “upended the delicate power balance within the Taliban and could stymie peace talks,” some warned, and risks the unleashing of another cycle of violence. While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, the report indicated Israeli intelligence officials later briefed Western officials about the clandestine operation shortly after it had been carried out.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken has denied that the United States had advance knowledge of the assassination plot.
Investigation Findings :
Speculation at first insinuated that Haniyeh was murdered through a missile hit. But soon the question was, how would Israel succeed in bypassing the protective armor and air defenses of Iran. The blast caused minimum damage; this is not what can be expected of the aftermath of a missile hit. Iranian authorities agreed the explosion inside the room of Haniyeh was where the bomb was placed in advance.
According to officials in the Middle East, planning for the operation, including detailed surveillance of the compound, had taken months. This included the fine-tuning of affairs, such that the room next door was not as severely destroyed and happened to be occupied by Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who is the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The Iranian Response and Mossad’s Hand in the Operation:
Iranian officials have described the assassination as a deep humiliation and are even now investigating how the bomb was set and when it was planted. Medical staff in the compound said Haniyeh and his bodyguard had been pronounced dead at the scene.
The operation is believed to have been coordinated by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency which is primarily responsible for carrying out assassinations outside the country. After the October 7 attacks, Mossad chief David Barnea had promised to hit at Hamas leaders, referring back to history in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre.
