Iran’n Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge after the top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike on Iranian soil early Wednesday morning.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directly blamed Israel for the strike, which hit the residence of Haniyeh while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Haniyeh had been living in exile in Qatar for years.
Khamenei said he was mourning the death of Iran’s “beloved guest inside our house,” according to state-run media outlet Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
“It paved the way for a harsh punishment to be imposed on it,” Khamenei said in his remarks, apparently referring to Israel.
The rocket or drone strike killed Haniyeh along with his bodyguard, according to the IRGC, which said the “crime” would be met with a “harsh and painful response.”
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zahri said Israel had “opened fire on itself” by killing Haniyeh.
“This assassination will not achieve the goals of [Israel] and will not be able to push Hamas to surrender,” Zahri said in an interview shared by pro-Iranian media outlets. “Hamas will continue on this path to the end.”
Israel has not commented on the death of Haniyeh, though it has often not acknowledged strikes in other countries it is not at direct war with or covert actions taken by its Mossad intelligence agency. The U.S. said it was not aware of or involved in the strike.
It would be somewhat rare for Israel to strike into Iran itself, though it has been accused of killing Iranian scientists in the country in 2020. Israeli forces also launched a limited attack on Iran in April following a massive drone and rocket barrage from Tehran on Israel.
Israel has targeted dozens of leaders of Hamas in the war, including a June strike that may have killed top military commander Mohammed Deif, though it has not confirmed his death. The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has yet to be found.
The death of Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader since 2017, threatens to escalate tensions further across the Middle East, where Israel is already battling the Iranian-backed groups of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the Houthis in Yemen battle U.S. forces in the Red Sea.
The apparent assassination attempt on Haniyeh comes just one day after Israel acknowledged its strike killed the top military commander of Hezbollah in Beirut. That attack had already raised fears that a wider war between Israel and Hezbollah is fast approaching.
Hezbollah has fired at Israel since Oct. 8 with artillery and rockets in an operation tied to the war in Gaza, but the conflict is now its own diplomatic crisis, with Israel unlikely to accept the Lebanese militant group at the border even if fighting with Hamas ends.
The developments may also upend a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, something the U.S. is pushing for with all its diplomatic might. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday it was difficult to speculate on how the death of Haniyeh would complicate the cease-fire talks, but he reiterated his support for a deal in Gaza as the best way to ease tensions.
Israel is fighting to destroy Hamas in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,100 people and took some 250 hostages. Around 116 hostages remain in Gaza. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, where Israel is facing scrutiny for the large number of civilian deaths and the lack of aid for struggling Palestinians.