Ismail Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in the attack that Hamas called a “traitorous Zionist raid on his Tehran residence.”
The bomb was hidden in the guesthouse in an upmarket Tehran locality, protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), about two months ago. The guesthouse was inside a large compound used by the IRGC for its secret meetings and to accommodate important guests.
The wait, however, was long, but fruitful.
Haniyeh, a top Hamas negotiator who had led its political delegation to Qatar, arrived in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian.
On Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that he was in his room at the guesthouse and that the assassins detonated the bomb remotely, NYT reported. The explosion shook the building. A portion of the wall collapsed. Windows shattered.
Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in the attack that Hamas called "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran." The Palestinian group, engaged in a deadly fight over Israel's Gaza campaign, called it a "serious escalation" and accused Israel of the killing.
The killing of the Hamas chief threatened to disrupt talks to end the war and unleash another wave of violence.
Israel has yet to claim responsibility. However, the report claims that Israeli intelligence officials had shared details about the covert operation with Western officials in the immediate period.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken had denied that the US had any prior knowledge about the assassination plot.
There was earlier speculation that Haniyeh had been killed in a missile strike, but the missile theory raised questions about how Israel evaded air defence systems in the Iranian capital. The damage caused was minimal, far less than what a missile strike would have caused.
There were rumours of witnesses seeing a missile-like object hitting the window of Haniyeh's room, but Iranian officials have confirmed that the explosion occurred inside the room and that the bomb had been planted in advance.
According to Middle Eastern officials, the planning took months and required detailed surveillance of the compound. The planning was so precise that the adjoining room, where Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah was staying, was not badly damaged.
The assassination has caused enormous embarrassment to Iranian officials who have yet to discover how or when the bombs were placed.
A medical team housed at the compound declared Haniyeh dead. They also failed to revive the bodyguard.
Israel's foreign intelligence and spy agency, the Mossad, is primarily responsible for assassinations outside the country. Mossad chief David Barnea had vowed to pursue Hamas leaders after the Oct. 7 attacks.
He had said it would take time, as after the Munich massacre, to catch Palestinian leaders.
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