An explosive device hidden in a heavily guarded complex where Ismail Haniyeh was known to stay in Iran was what killed him, according to a Times investigation.

Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official.

The bomb had been hidden approximately two months ago in the guesthouse, according to five of the Middle Eastern officials. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood of northern Tehran.

Mr. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely, the five officials said, once it was confirmed that he was inside his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard.

  • ralphio@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    TBH don’t know which one would have been more embarressing for the Iranians. That the air defenses would have let an airstrike in Tehran or that they let the Israelis plant a bomb in a secured compound. Honestly I think this is worse for them.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      embarressing for the Iranians

      Hosting a diplomat and working to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza is embarrassing.

      Spending months, thousands of man-hours, and a fortune in high tech military equipment to kill the lead negotiator in a peace deal is uber cool and mega elite, just like in a video game, pew pew.

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Imagine the outrage if the Iranians returned the favor.

    Israel needs to knock this shit off before they start something they can’t finish.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Imagine the outrage if Hamas staged a raid on Israeli civilians or Hezbollah rocketed a Druze soccer game.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Imagine the outrage if Hamas staged a raid on Israeli civilians

        You hardly have to imagine.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–2019_Gaza_border_protests

        The IDF responded by blowing off the kneecaps of entire families of raiders. Adult male raiders, raider wives, and raider children were stopped dead in their tracks.

        Obviously, this is the only sane and rational response to such a vicious terrorist act. I’ll be excited to hear Lemmy applaud the response. And the response to the response. And on and on and on, forever.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    The assassination threatened to unleash another wave of violence in the Middle East and upend the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Mr. Haniyeh had been a top negotiator in the cease-fire talks.

    The other Palestinian negotiators might just possibly take Israel blowing up the guy they’re talking to as a sign that Israel is not negotiating in altogether good faith.

    • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well they’re not negotiating with people who aren’t terrorists…I don’t think you understand what negotiations are or why they’re necessary.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago
        • If you’re taking the side of the Palestinians, you’re a terrorist

        • We will not negotiate with terrorists

        • kills all the negotiators

        • Palestinians refuse to accept our peace deals. This just proves they’re all terrorists.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    3 months ago

    That’s some Hitman shit right there.

    Certainly better than blowing up 100 innocent people to kill one guy who might not have been there anyway.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Certainly better than blowing up 100 innocent people

      He was the lead diplomat negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza. They killed him in order to continue massacring innocent people.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Does this constitute Israeli terrorism? And will the international community move to condemn and sanction these acts?

        • CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Both Hezbollah and Iran are both at war with Israel and have vowed to destroy Israel many, many times.

            • CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I may be mistaken. I’ve done some Googling. Wikipedia tells me that Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen declared war on Israel when it was founded in 1947. It ended in an armistice (basically a cease fire). In later years, Algeria and Morocco attacked Israel along with others. In 1979, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel, it was the first country to do so. Jordan did so later, but I am not sure when. All of those other countries still are technically in a state of war against Israel. I don’t see any mention of Iran being at war with Israel in the past, so I don’t think Iran is technically at war with Israel.

              • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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                3 months ago

                yeah that is sorta big in that the reply that started this chain basically is saying if its war its war, but if not its terrorism. So if no state of war exists then it would be terrorism but of course the US hasn’t been in a constitutionally declared war since ww2 but then congress has fromally sanctioned military action and then the war powers act allows some stuff with the president so there is at least some trail of formal action. But then we have the cia type of shit.

                • CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  A lot of people in this sub don’t seem to understand what the definition of terrorism is. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the use of violence against civilians for political aims. Hamas is a paramilitary organization, let’s just call it an army for ease of discussion. There is currently an actual shooting war going on (no cease fire) between Hamas and Israel. Members of an army’s leadership are legitimate targets during times of war.

                  Now, attacking an army’s leadership in a third country (I’m counting Gaza as country 1 and Israel as country 2 for this discussion) can have big, negative repercussions for the country that does the attacking in the 3rd country. However, this assumes country #3 is trying to remain neutral. Iran is anything but a neutral 3rd party in the conflict. They have armed and trained Hamas for decades as well as threatened to destroy Israel many, many times over 40 years. For Israel, there was no real downside to killing that Hamas leader in Iran.