Tehran (Web Desk/Agencies): Hamas leader and former Prime Minister of Gaza Ismail Haniyeh was martyred in an attack in Tehran on Wednesday morning.
According to Iranian media, Hamas leader was martyred in an Israeli attack on his residence.
Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA also confirmed Haniyeh’s killing, adding that one of his bodyguards was also killed in their residence in the Iranian capital early on Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Israeli military said it was conducting a situational assessment but had not issued any new security guidelines for civilians.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington would work to try to ease tensions but said the United States would help defend Israel if it were attacked.
The news, which came less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, appears to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, has been the face of the Palestinian group's international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Appointed to the Hamas top job in 2017, Haniyeh has moved between Turkey and Qatar's capital Doha, escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as a negotiator in ceasefire talks or to talk to Hamas' ally Iran.
