LIVE: Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas chief killed in Iran, confirms Iranian State TV

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran’s Tehran, the Palestinian group Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Islamist faction mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.

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.

Earlier, the Israeli regime claimed in a statement that it carried out “a targeted strike” on Tuesday against the Hezbollah commander the regime accuses of being behind a rocket explosion in Majdal Shams at the weekend.

Lebanese media said the strike targeted an area in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital Beirut. They also said that the attack hit a residential building, razing it to the ground and causing damage to an adjacent hospital.

The targeted area is said to be crowded, with a number of people getting injured.

World leaders condemn assassination

The world leaders have condemned assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Russia denounced the “unacceptable political assassination” of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov said.

“It is a completely unacceptable political assassination, and this will lead to a further escalation of tensions,” Bogdanov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Turkey also condemned the “shameful assassination” of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh — an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

“We condemn the assassination of the leader of Hamas’s political office, Ismail Haniyeh, in a shameful assassination in Tehran,” the ministry said, adding that “this attack also aims to spread the Gaza war to a regional dimension”.

‘Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination will not go unpunished’

Palestinian group Hamas has announced to avenge the killing of its political wing chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

The assassination of Hamas Political Wing Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran is a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV cited senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying.

In a separate statement, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Wednesday that the assassination is a grave escalation that will not achieve its goals.

Hamas said Wednesday its political leader was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

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.