Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief, spent his last hours in Tehran attending the inauguration ceremony of Masoud Peshkian as new Iranian President. He was then killed in an alleged Israeli missile attack.
Hamas sources reported that Haniyeh stayed with Ziyad Nakhlah in an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps residence (IRGC) in the capital after his meetings.
Haniyeh, who was sitting in a safehouse of the IRGC in Tehran’s capital surrounded by guards, likely felt secure and had no idea what his fate would be.
Israel’s Defense Forces is believed to have launched a daring missile attack on the building overnight, killing Hamas leader Nakhalah as he slept.
Israel had promised to kill Haniyeh, and other Hamas leaders over the group’s attacks on October 7, with Mossad Chief David Barnea declaring in January that Israel was “committed to settle the score with murderers who descended into the Gaza envelope”.
Haniyeh, however, had promised to fight Israel until the bitter end. A Hamas press release quoted him as saying the Palestinian cause comes with a price and that he was ready to pay it: a martyr’s death for Palestine, for God Almighty and for this nation’s dignity.