Hamas leader Haniyeh killed by bomb smuggled weeks before in Tehran guesthouse

A New York Times investigation has reported that Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday in Tehran by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the guesthouse where he was staying.

Citing information from seven Middle Eastern official, including two Iranians, and an American official, the Tiems said the bomb had been hidden two months ago in the guesthouse.

The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighbourhood of northern Tehran.

Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’s political office in Qatar, had stayed at the guesthouse several times when visiting Tehran, and was in Iran’s capital for the presidential inauguration.

The bomb was detonated remotely once it was confirmed that he was inside his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard.

Haniyeh had been a top negotiator in the ceasefire talks for Gaza. The Qatari government has been mediating the negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the killing, but Israeli intelligence officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation in the immediate aftermath, according to the five Middle Eastern officials.

Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken said that the United States had received no advance knowledge of the assassination plot.

While speculation immediately focused on the possibility that Israel had killed Haniyeh with a missile strike, it raised questions about how Israel might have been able to evade Iranian air defence systems.

The assassins appear to have exploited a lapse in the security of the supposedly tightly guarded compound, to allow a bomb to be planted and remain hidden for many weeks.

It would be deemed to be a catastrophic failure of intelligence and security for Iran and the IRG, which uses the compound for retreats, secret meetings and housing prominent guests.

The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, was staying next door, two of the Iranian officials said. His room was not badly damaged, suggesting precise planning in the targeting of Haniyeh.

The New York Times said the attack’s precision and sophistication was similar in tactic to the remote controlled A.I. robot weapon that Israel used to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020.

Israeli assassination operations outside of the country are primarily carried out by Mossad, the country’s foreign intelligence service.