Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination ‘will not go unpunished’, says Hamas

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.

“Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the movement said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Ismail Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

“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, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.