One of Hamas' top leaders was killed in Iran, pushing the Middle East closer to the brink

• Ismail Haniyeh, one of the seniormost members of Hamas, was killed on Wednesday in Iran.
• He was attending the inauguration of Iran's new president. Local reports say he was killed in a 2 a.m. air strike.
• Hamas and Iran blamed Israel, which has carried out such strikes before. Israel has not commented.

Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, was killed in Iran on Wednesday in a dramatic strike.

Details of the attack were still emerging in the hours that followed.

Hamas and Iran have both blamed Israel for the strike. Israel hasn't commented.

Haniyeh, 62, was the leader of the political wing of Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza. He was in Iran for the swearing-in of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Local reports suggested that Haniyeh died in an early-morning airstrike on his accommodation.

Tasnim News, an outlet with links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported Haniyeh was killed by an airborne guided projectile in northern Tehran around 2 a.m. local time.

He was staying in a residence for veterans, Tasnim said.

The Iranian state outlet IRNA reported that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed early on Wednesday at the property.

The assassination of so senior a Hamas figure could further inflame the Middle East should Iran attack Israel in response.

Shadow war bursts into the open

The US and other powers have long feared a direct confrontation between Iran and Israel, which have for decades fought a shadow war of espionage and assassination.

An exchange of attacks in April, on an Iranian embassy in Syria and then a return attack on Israeli soil, marked an earlier escalation which stopped short of further conflict.

Iran has long funded, armed, and trained Israel's enemies, including Hamas in Gaza and the armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The killing of Haniyeh came only hours after Israel targeted a Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

They and other Iran-backed groups are part of the "Axis of Resistance" — an informal military coalition opposing Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.

While Hamas is based in Gaza, Haniyeh was part of its leadership that lived mostly in Qatar.

A 'grave escalation'

In a statement published by the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency, Hamas accused Israel of killing Haniyeh in a "treacherous" attack.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Israel assassinated Haniyeh, calling it a "grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas."

In an X post on Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said Israel was behind Haniyeh's death. In a later post he said "it is our duty to take revenge."

Khamenei met with Haniyeh on Tuesday, only hours before his death.

Israel has not commented on the attack. But it has a long history of similar attacks, and the long-standing aim to kill Hamas' leadership.

In October, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, vowed "mighty vengeance" on Hamas and its leaders for its October 7 terror attacks on Israel, which saw some 1,200 people killed and around 250 taken hostage.

In May, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement that he would seek an arrest warrant for Haniyeh.

Khan collectively accused Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas' military wing, of war crimes and crimes of humanity on October 7.

When contacted for comment on Iranian state media reports, the Israeli military told CNN they "don't respond to reports in the foreign media."

A White House spokesperson told the outlet it was aware of the reports but declined to comment.

Representatives for the Pentagon and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Haniyeh's death comes hours after Israel struck the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing a top Hezbollah commander who it said was responsible for a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend.