Former Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that was secretly smuggled into his guesthouse in Tehran, and not by an airstrike, the New York Times reported and the Jerusalem Post has independently confirmed.
The bomb was hidden in June and used cutting-edge remote technology as has been used in the killing of Iran nuclear chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, according to the report and the Post‘s sources.
Moreover, the Post has learned that despite reports that Haniyeh was more practical on hostage deal talks than Hamas Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar, in fact recently, Haniyeh has often been more of an obstacle to a final deal, such that his removal could even make a deal more likely.
Iran dealt a great deal of embarrassment
Further, embarrassingly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, they were directly responsible for security at the guesthouse in a large compound called Neshat in a high-end neighborhood in northern Tehran.
Iran has accused Israel of the assassination and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea previously directly threatened Haniyeh and other top Hamas leaders, but Jerusalem has not taken official credit for the assassination like it did for the recent killings of Hamas and Hezbollah’s military chiefs Mohammed Deif and Fuad Shukr respectively.
It appears that the IRGC or those close to it initially circulated rumors that the attack occurred by drone strike as this could potentially shift more responsibility from the IRGC for the failure of the security measures protecting Haniyeh on other bodies like the air force.
In contrast, the military and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry are often in competition with the IRGC and would want to make it clear that the IRGC was responsible for failing to detect an internally planted bomb, and not other bodies from defending against a drone strike.
Barnea has been known to be fascinated with remote cutting-edge technological solutions for carrying out operations.
Haniyeh has visited Tehran numerous times and stayed at the same guest house all or most of those times, providing the assassins a clear target to plan for.
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