RIYADH: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been assassinated in Iran, the Palestinian group said.
Iranian state television announced the killing on Wednesday morning.
In a statement, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Haniyeh and a security guard were ambushed at their residence and that an investigation was underway.
Haniyeh, who headed the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Hamas, traveled to Iran for the swearing-in ceremony of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The 62-year-old Palestinian leader had previously met with Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said: “This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a serious escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve false goals. We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its goals.”
“Hamas is a concept and an institution, not people. Hamas will continue on this path despite the sacrifices and we are confident of victory.”
Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, leader of Yemen's Houthis, said: “Targeting Ismail Haniyeh is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values.”
Israel has vowed to crush Hamas after the group conducted a deadly raid on settlements outside the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and returning some hostages to the Palestinian enclave.
Shortly thereafter, Israel launched a devastating military attack on Gaza and has since killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians.
Both sides have been trying to negotiate a deal to release the hostages, which would include a cessation of fighting, with the help of U.S. and regional negotiators.
The killing comes amid an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is blamed for an attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children over the weekend.
Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday evening, saying it killed Fuad Shukr, head of Hezbollah's military operations room, whom Israel believes is responsible for the attack on the Golan Heights, a charge the Lebanese group denies.
Israel, which has not yet commented on Haniyeh's killing, has in the past carried out assassinations in Iran of key figures in the Islamic republic's nuclear program.
In 2021, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist.
But since the war in Gaza, Israel has carried out targeted attacks against key figures in Hamas and the IRGC, including Saleh Al-Arouri, one of the Palestinian group's leaders.
In April, Iran said its consulate in Damascus had been destroyed and a high-ranking general killed in an attack that Tehran blamed on Israel.
Iran soon after launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, but they were all shot down. Israel responded by attacking sites in Isfahan.
Thanks to diplomacy, further escalation between the two sides was avoided, but Israel continued to attack Iranian-affiliated organizations in Syria.
The scale of Israel's military response to Hamas attacks has been condemned, and the International Court of Justice has admitted that the country may have been involved in acts of genocide.
Israel has also been accused of collective punishment and using starvation as a weapon in the fight against the militant group.
