Iran says Hamas leader was killed by short-range projectile

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed with a “short-range projectile” fired from exterior his guesthouse in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says.

The paramilitary organisation mentioned the projectile weighed about 7kg (16lbs) and brought on a “robust blast”, killing Haniyeh and his bodyguard final Wednesday. The Hamas chief had been visiting the Iranian capital for the inauguration of President Massoud Pezeshkian.

The IRGC accused Israel of designing and implementing the operation – supported by the US. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s demise.

The IRGC account is at odds with reviews in Western media, which have recommended that explosives had been planted within the guesthouse by Israeli operatives.

The failures surrounding Haniyeh’s demise, particularly on a day marked by intense safety, have brought on embarrassment for Iran and the IRGC.

Dozens of IRGC officers have been arrested or dismissed within the days since Haniyeh’s demise, the New York Occasions reported on Saturday.

The paper mentioned the organisation’s intelligence company had taken over the investigation. Workers members at Haniyeh’s guesthouse have been interrogated and their telephones and different electronics have been seized, it added.

In the meantime, the safety particulars of Iranian politicians have been overhauled. Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh on Thursday, however was whisked away quickly after the ceremony by his safety element.

The IRGC’s assertion on Saturday got here after Britain’s Day by day Telegraph mentioned Haniyeh was killed by bombs planted in his room by brokers of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company

Citing Iranian officers, the paper mentioned two Mossad brokers had entered the guesthouse and planted explosives in three rooms. The Iranians, who had considered CCTV footage of the operatives, mentioned the 2 subsequently left the nation earlier than detonating the bombs from exterior Iran.

The New York Occasions additionally reported that Haniyeh was killed by explosives detonated in his room, saying they might have been planted as much as two months earlier. The BBC has not been capable of confirm these claims.

However Hamas officers advised the BBC earlier this week that Haniyeh had stayed on the similar guesthouse earlier than. He had made as much as 15 visits to Iran since turning into the top of the political bureau in 2017.

The papers’ reviews – if true – would characterize a good larger failure for the IRGC, who’ve lengthy managed inside safety within the nation. Specialists additionally mentioned it could spotlight the diploma to which Mossad can function with impunity in Iran.

Whatever the method of Haniyeh’s demise, each Iran and Hamas have vowed to retaliate.

The IRGC mentioned on Saturday that Israel would obtain “a extreme punishment on the applicable time, place and method”.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia and political group in Lebanon, has additionally vowed reprisals. Considered one of their high commanders, Fuad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli strike final Tuesday.

After an Israeli operation killed IRGC Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus earlier this 12 months, Iran fired 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and not less than 110 ballistic missiles in direction of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israelis that “difficult days lie forward… Now we have heard threats from all sides. We’re ready for any situation”.

His ministers had been despatched dwelling this weekend with satellite tv for pc telephones in case of an assault on the nation’s communication infrastructure.

Regardless of the federal government’s warnings, the temper appeared relaxed on Tel Aviv’s seafront, with bronzed our bodies lazing underneath seaside umbrellas.

However few are in any doubt that the Center East stands perilously near full-scale conflict.

Israel is on excessive alert and a number of other worldwide airways have suspended flights to the nation.

The US has additionally deployed extra warships and fighter jets to the Center East to assist defend Israel from potential assaults by Iran and its proxies, the Pentagon mentioned.

UK Overseas Secretary David Lammy has warned that the danger that “the scenario on the bottom may deteriorate quickly is rising”.

In the meantime, not less than 10 folks have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a faculty sheltering displaced folks in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, the Hamas-run authorities media workplace has mentioned.

It comes as Israel mentioned an airstrike it performed within the occupied West Financial institution killed a Hamas commander and 4 senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters on Saturday.

The Israeli navy mentioned the air strike hit a automobile as the boys had been on the best way to hold out an assault.

Elsewhere, Israeli officers – together with the administrators of Mossad and the interior safety company Shin Guess – have arrived in Cairo for recent ceasefire talks.

They’ll meet Egyptian intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and different senior navy officers in a bid to rescue a possible truce. However US President Joe Biden admitted on Friday that Haniyeh’s demise had broken the talks.

Haniyeh was closely concerned in negotiations and Mr Biden mentioned his demise “doesn’t assist” efforts to finish the ten-month previous battle.

The conflict started in October when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault on Israel, killing about 1,200 folks and taking 251 others again to Gaza as hostages.

The assault triggered a large Israeli navy response, which has killed not less than 39,550 Palestinians in Gaza, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.