Iran media say Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed by air strike

Iranian media said Wednesday that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an air strike in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president. 

“Haniyeh, who had come to Iran for the inauguration ceremony of the president, was staying in one of the special residences for war veterans in north Tehran, when he was martyred by an air-launched missile,” the Fars news agency said. Other media carried the same statement.

Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he had been targeted in his residence along with an Iranian bodyguard. It said he had been in Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. It said it was investigating the circumstances of the “incident”.

Ismail Haniyeh was the exiled political chief of the group and had spent much of his time in recent years in Qatar. During the Israel-Gaza war he had acted as a negotiator in the ceasefire talks and liased with Hamas’s main ally, Iran.

Israel has yet to make any comment on Ismail Haniyeh’s killing but in its statement Hamas accused it of responsibility.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington would work to try to ease tensions but said the United States would help defend Israel if it were attacked.