Agencies
TEHRAN
Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed earlier this week by a “short-range projectile” launched from outside his residence in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the IRGC said that based on investigations conducted so far, the attack against Haniyeh “was carried out by firing a short-range projectile carrying about 7kg [15.4lb] of explosive materials and launched from outside the guests residency”.
It added that Israel will receive “a harsh punishment in due time and place” for Haniyeh’s assassination, which, it said, was “supported by the criminal government” of the United States. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a role, while the US has said it “was not aware of or involved in” Haniyeh’s killing which threatens to plunge the Middle East into further conflict amid Israel’s relentless war on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian leader and his bodyguard were killed in an Iranian government guest house in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday.
Haniyeh had gone to the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration of Iran’s newly elected Masoud Pezeshkian.
According to security analyst H A Hellyer, the narrative Iran will adopt to describe the method of assassination of Ismail Haniyeh will shape its escalation against Israel.
“It’s not clear yet how he was assassinated and any conclusion on that regard will have serious ramifications for what sort of escalation will come next and what narrative is gonna be produced,” Hellyer told Al Jazeera, noting that there are two competing narratives.
Citing unnamed officials, including Middle Eastern and Iranian sources, a number of Western outlets had previously reported that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted months ago in his accommodation in Tehran.
“There is a difference between these two types of scenarios,” Hellyer said, adding that a missile would suggest that “a security breach may have taken place in terms of knowing exactly where to hit, but it’s a different security breach than if a bomb was smuggled inside Iran.”
On Friday, thousands of people attended Haniyeh’s funeral prayer at a mosque in Doha.
