Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran :::: "..... he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate"

 Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, Palestinian group Hamas said, drawing fears of a wider escalation in a region shaken by Israel’s offensive in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president, and said it was investigating.

They added that one of Haniyeh’s bodyguards was also killed in their residence in Tehran early on Wednesday, Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA reported.

Haniyeh’s bodyguard also killed in their residence, say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

News comes within a day of Israel’s claim of killing Hezbollah commander behind Golan strike Pakistan “deeply shocked”, views growing “Israeli adventurism” with serious concern,

US says “not aware of or involved” in killing while Middle East countries term it “cowardly action”, “heinous crime”

There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Israeli military said it was conducting a situational assessment but had not issued any new security guidelines for civilians.

The news, which came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, appears to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

“This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

“We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives. Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons,” he said.
Zuhri vowed Hamas would continue the path it was following, adding: “We are confident of victory.”

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Iran’s top security body is expected to meet to decide Iran’s strategy in reaction to the death of Haniyeh, a close ally of Tehran, said a source with knowledge of the meeting.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in Iran, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group’s international diplomacy as conflict raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

But despite the rhetoric, he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more hardline members of the group inside Gaza.

Appointed to the Hamas top job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Turkiye and Qatar’s capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in ceasefire talks or to talk to Hamas’ ally Iran.

“All the agreements of normalisation that you (Arab states) signed with (Israel) will not end this conflict,” Haniyeh declared on Qatar-based Al Jazeera television shortly after Hamas fighters launched the October 7 raid.

Israel’s response to the strike has been a military campaign that has killed more than 35,000 people inside Gaza so far, according to health authorities in the territory.