By Brady Knox and Washington Examiner Staff
The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed along with one of his bodyguards in Tehran, Iran.
Haniyeh, 62, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, resided in Qatar throughout the Israel-Hamas war and was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. His death was announced by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and confirmed by Hamas in the early hours of Wednesday, local time. Hamas immediately blamed Israel for his death.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns the sons of our great Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation, and all the free people of the world: the brother leader, martyr, Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, head of the movement, who was killed as a result of a Zionist raid,” Hamas announced on its Telegram channel. “He left his residence in Tehran, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president. We belong to God and to Him we shall return, and indeed it is a jihad, victory or martyrdom of the Islamic Resistance Movement.”
Haniyeh is believed to be at least the second leader of one of the Middle East terrorist groups that Iran supports and has ties to, CNN reported. On Tuesday, in Lebanon, Israel confirmed it killed Fu’ad Shukr, one of “Hezbollah’s most senior military commanders.” Among other terrorist acts, Shukr was also known as the mastermind behind the 1983 bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 U.S. troops.
