After Months, Israel Claims Responsibility For Ismaiel Haniyeh's Killing

For the first time since the former Hamas political chief was murdered on Iranian soil, Israel on Monday claimed responsibility for the killing. The Hamas leader was killed in July when he came to Iran for the inauguration of the new president Masoud Pezeshkian after former head Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash.

Israel had kept silence on its role in the killing of Ismael Haniyeh as the tension with its arch enemy Iran has been high amid the Jewish country’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Haniyeh was assassinated by an explosive device planted in his guesthouse in Tehran, probably by a Mossad agent. Haniyeh was the leading cease-fire negotiator with Israel for Hamas at the time of his death.

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Claiming the responsibility for the killing of Hamas leader, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that he wanted to convey the message to Houthis who are firing missiles at Israel that they have defeated Hamas, Hezbollah, and blinded Iran’s defense systems and damaged the production systems, toppled the Assad regime in Syria, and dealt a severe blow to the axis of evil. He warned that Israel will also deal a severe blow to the Houthis, adding that it remains the last to stand.

Israel will damage their strategic infrastructure, and we will behead their leaders—just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon—we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana’a,” Katz stated.

Read Also: Israel Continue To Kill Gazans As Ceasefire Talks Intensifies

Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking the Israel-US-linked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with the grieving Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. Recently, two United States Navy pilots have been shot down over the Red Sea in a friendly fire incident, according to the US military. However, Yemen’s Houthi fighters later claimed they had targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to shooting down an F-18 aircraft.

Since the ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, Israel has been violating the agreement, killing several people in Lebanon while its atrocities in Gaza continued unabated. Syria’s fall is believed to be a severe blow to Iran’s arms supplies to the resistance force in Gaza and Lebanon.