The leader of the Hamas political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated along with one of his bodyguards in Tehran, the Palestinian group and Iranian authorities have confirmed.
Hamas was quick to blame the killing on Israel, which has so far declined to comment.
The group said Haniyeh was killed on Tuesday morning in a “treacherous attack of the Zionists on his residence” in Tehran.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has said an investigation is ongoing.
Haniyeh, usually based in Qatar, was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
The assassination of Haniyeh is a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, the Hamas-run channel Al-Aqsa TV quoted senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.
“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. He went on to say that Hamas will continue the path it is following, and is “confident of victory.”
Israel had threatened to eliminate Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s October, 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage. Earlier this year an Israeli air strike in central Gaza killed three sons and four grandchildren of Haniyeh. The military claimed they were involved in “terrorist activities”. Haniyeh at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since October.
From Qatar, Haniyeh had been the militant group’s diplomatic frontman, acting as a mediator in ceasefire negotiations, and talks on the return of Israeli hostages during the Israel-Hamas war.