Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that the chief of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran along with one of his bodyguards.
“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, he and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the IRG Corps’ Sepah news website.
The cause of the “incident” was not immediately clear but the Guards said it was “being investigated.”
Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian in parliament.
He had met with Pezeshkian as well as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony came amid concerns of war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah following a Saturday rocket attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of responsibility for the attack that killed 12 children, but the Iran-backed Lebanese group has denied any involvement.
Later on Tuesday, Israel struck Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut in retaliation for the Golan strike, saying it had killed the commander responsible for the attack.
A source close to Hezbollah said Shukr was the target but that he “survived the Israeli strike.” AFP was not immediately able to confirm that report.
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