NY Times: Haniyeh was killed by bomb smuggled into Tehran guesthouse 2 months ago
Israel at warSecurity breach a 'tremendous embarrassment' for the IRGC

NY Times: Haniyeh was killed by bomb smuggled into Tehran guesthouse 2 months ago

US officials assess Israel behind assassination of Hamas chief, which Middle East sources say was months in planning; report says Israel briefed US, allies in immediate aftermath

Haniyeh meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei the day before his death
(Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Haniyeh meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei the day before his death (Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

The explosion that killed Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard early Wednesday was set off by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb smuggled about two months ago into the Hamas leader’s room at the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The report cited one American and seven Middle Eastern officials, including two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It contradicted earlier reports, including by the IRGC’s Tasnim news agency, that a missile had killed Haniyeh. It also cited officials from the United States and the Middle East as saying or assessing that Israel was behind the blast.

According to three Iranian officials cited by the Times, the assassination is a “tremendous embarrassment” for the IRGC, which runs the guesthouse where Haniyeh and other dignitaries were staying.

Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but Iran has vowed to exact revenge on Israel.

The IRGC officials cited by the Times noted that while the explosion shattered windows and collapsed a portion of the wall of the compound, there was minimal damage to the building itself. The New York Times said the limited scope of the damage was corroborated by photographs reviewed by the newspaper.

According to the Times, this indicated the blast was unlikely to have been caused by a missile strike, as had been reported. A missile would also have difficulty breaching Iran’s air defenses, the newspaper said.

The blast did not badly damage the room next to Haniyeh’s, which housed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh, two Iranian officials told the Times. According to the newspaper, this suggested “precise planning” in targeting Haniyeh.

Middle Eastern officials told the Times that the blast’s precision required months of planning and extensive surveillance.

Two Iranian officials said they did not know how or when the bomb was smuggled into Haniyeh’s room, though five of the Middle Eastern officials said it was planted there roughly two months ago.

According to the Times, five Middle Eastern officials said that “Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation in the immediate aftermath.”

The report also said that several US officials had reached the “assessment” that Israel was responsible for the assassination.

The IRGC members cited by the Times said the precision of the hit was reminiscent of the remote-operated machine gun that a Mossad team used to kill top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. The five Middle Eastern officials said that the explosive that killed Haniyeh had been detonated from afar.

Haniyeh was staying in an IRGC compound called Neshat in an affluent north Tehran neighborhood. The compound is said to be used for retreats, secret meetings and “housing prominent guests” such as Haniyeh.

According to the report, the compound’s medical staff rushed to Haniyeh’s room after the bomb exploded, at about 2 a.m. local time, and declared him dead on the spot. They also declared his bodyguard dead after trying to revive him.

Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya also came to the scene, where he saw Haniyeh’s body, the five Middle Eastern officials told the Times.

The three Iranian officials said that Gen. Ismail Ghaani, the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, was immediately notified of the explosion. He woke up Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and notified him that Haniyeh had been killed.

Israel vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas after the Gaza-based terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

The hit on Haniyeh came a month after an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza’s Khan Younis hit Hamas military leader Muhammad Deif, whose death the army confirmed Thursday.

It came hours after Israel killed Hezbollah’s most senior commander Fuad Shukry in a missile strike for which it claimed responsibility in Beirut. Israel said Shukry, who was also wanted by the US, was responsible for a Hezbollah missile strike that killed 12 children in the Druze village of Majdal Shams on Saturday. PJC

read more:
comments