Political Bureau Chief of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, said Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday. Hamas also released a statement mourning Haniyeh's death saying he was killed in "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran".
"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, reported Associated Press.
An official of the Hamas avenged that the group chief's killing "will not go unanswered", reported AFP.
While no one has claimed responsibility for the assassination yet, the suspicion has immediately fell on Israel, which vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of the Palestinian armed group over the outfit's October 7 attacks, reported AP. However, Israeli army has declined to comment on foreign media reports, as per AFP.
As many as 1,200 Israelis were killed in the offensive and some 250 were taken as hostages after the attack which sparked the war in Gaza that has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crisis killing more than 39,360 Palestinians.
In his last interview, given to Turkish news agency Anadolu, Haniyeh had alleged that Israel wanted to take back its hostages and restart the war in Gaza and demanded that Israeli army must completely withdraw from beseiged strip.
Iran's statement has also not given details on how Haniyeh was killed and the Guards said the attack was under investigation, the report added.
The Hamas top leader was in Iran's capital Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian, which, notably was also attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
In April, three of Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike and the Hamas chief had said that the killings would not pressure the outfit into softening its position.
Ismail Haniyeh's killing comes amid heightened tensions of an all-out war in the Middle East after Israel claimed it killled top military commander of Hezbollah in the aftermath of the Golan Heights attack.