Middle East crisis: Hamas says leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran – latest updates | World news

The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh took place at around 2am while he was staying at a residence for war veterans, Iranian state media is reporting. So far little detail as come out about the exact circumstances of the killing.

Nour News reported that the building was hit by an “airborne projectile” and that “further investigations are underway to determine the details of this terrorist operation”, according to Reuters.

Who was Ismail Haniyeh?

Ruth Michaelson

Hamas has described the killing of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, as a grave escalation that will not go unanswered. His assassination in Iran will be perceived as a serious blow to efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, as talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt stagger forward after months of negotiations.

Haniyeh had long served as the head of Hamas’ politburo, and was seen as a moderate figure within the movement, one whose role had become vital in sustained diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.

He was elected as the head of the political wing in 2017, before leaving Gaza for exile in Qatar two years later. From exile he became the face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy, shuttling between Turkey, Iran and Qatar, joining a group of Hamas leaders sheltering in Doha and unable to return to Gaza. Even so, Haniyeh was seen as a key line of communication with hardline figures like Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.

Arab diplomats and officials had viewed him as relatively pragmatic compared with other more militant voices, inside Gaza and he was described by some experts as leading the political battle for Hamas with regional governments in the Middle East.

Haniyeh’s allies and even former rivals stepped in to condemn the assassination on Wednesday, amid fears that his death during a visit to Tehran could provoke a broader response.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called the killing “a cowardly act and a serious escalation.” The Turkish foreign ministry called the assassination “heinous.”

Read on below:

The Israeli military says it has extended the detention of eight soldiers detained on suspicion of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee from Gaza.

It said the court stated that there was evidence to substantiate a “reasonable suspicion that the injury to the detainee occurred at the hands of the detainees [soldiers]”. In an X post the IDF said:

The military court accepted the request of the military prosecution and extended the detention of eight suspects until Sunday, August 4. In its decision, the court stated that evidence was presented in the petitions which substantiates a reasonable suspicion that the injury to the detainee occurred at the hands of the detainees.

The court also said that “it is forbidden to harm detainees unnecessarily, no matter how serious their crimes may be,” according to the IDF.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has said that its senior military commander Fuad Shukr was in the Beirut building targeted by an Israeli strike on Tuesday, but has not confirmed his fate.

Israel claimed it had killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukur, in an airstrike on a south Beirut suburb launched in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend. Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the weekend attack.

Three people, including two children, were killed and 74 people injured in the Israeli attack on Beirut, the Lebanese ministry of health said.

Shukur, also known as Hajj Mohsin, served as right hand man to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel’s military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari claimed.

An adviser for planning and directing wartime operations, Shukur was responsible for most of Hezbollah’s advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs, Israel said.

He also had a $5m (£3.9m) bounty on his head in America over his role in the 1983 bombing of a US marine barracks in the Lebanese capital.

Turkey has condemned Haniyeh’s assassination and said the attack aimed to spread the war in Gaza on a regional level, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the foreign ministry. Apparently blaming Israel for the attack, the statement also said:

It has been revealed once again that the government of [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has no intention of achieving peace.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what we know so far:

• Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed, according to Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Israel has yet to make any comment on Haniyeh’s killing but in its statement, Hamas accused Israel of the attack. Associated Press reports that analysts on Iranian state television have also begun blaming Israel for the attack.

• The Hamas statement said the group mourned Haniyeh “who died as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president”.

• The assassination was reported on Iranian State TV early on Wednesday morning. In a statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said “The cause and dimensions of this incident are being investigated and the results will be announced later.”

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Haniyeh had been targeted in his residence along with an Iranian bodyguard. It said he had been in Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian and that the circumstances of the “incident” was being investigated.

• Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Haniyeh’s death “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, according to the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV. Another Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has told Reuters that the killing is a grave escalation that will not achieve its goals.

• Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee called Haniyeh’s killing a “heinous terrorist crime”, according to Reutersand “a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”

• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has strongly condemned the killing, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported. Palestinian national and Islamic factions have also called for a general strike and mass demonstrations in response to the assassination.

• Although Israel has not formally commented, several Israeli ministers have reacted to Haniyeh’s assassination. The heritage minister, Amichay Eliyahu, celebrated his killing, writing on X: “Haniyeh’s death makes the world a little better” and that this is the “right way to clean the world from this filth”.

• Shlomo Karhi, minister of communications, wrote on X: “Yes, all your enemies will perish, O God”, although the post appeared later to have been deleted.

• Amichai Chikli, minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, posted a video of the Hamas leader on X with the caption, “Careful What You Wish For”.

• Haniyeh was the exiled political chief of the militant group and had spent much of his time in recent years in Qatar. During the Israel-Gaza war he had acted as a negotiator in the ceasefire talks and liased with Hamas’s main ally, Iran. He was photographed in Tehran on Tuesday meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah.

• Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel claimed it killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukur, in an airstrike on a south Beirut suburb launched in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend.

• There are fears that the deaths could escalate tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran, threatening the US’ global diplomatic effort to prevent a full-blown regional conflict.

The Israeli military’s spokesperson Daniel Hagari has posted an update on his X account, saying there are “no changes in the home defence policy”. He says further:

At this time, the IDF is conducting a situation assessment. If any changes are decided, we will update the public immediately on the platforms of the IDF and the Home Front Command. You must stay informed and act according to the instructions of the Home Front Command.

In a separate post, the military said it had “successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target” coming from Lebanon overnight.