Why killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh is a spectacular slap in Iran’s face

Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed in an attack that the Palestinian group blamed on Israel. Though Haniyeh was a dead man walking since the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7 last year, his killing in Tehran is significant. It isn’t just a body blow for Hamas, but also a big loss of face for Iran, the arch enemy of the Jewish state.

Ismail Haniyeh was based in Qatar’s capital, Doha. The Arab country funds Hamas and gives shelter to Hamas political leaders. Qatar uses these ties and its oil wealth to pull disproportionate weight in global geopolitics.

Haniyeh was killed when he was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He is also believed to have met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday.

Iran and Israel are sworn enemies. Israel has tried to prevent the Shia Islamic country from getting nuclear weapons by disrupting its nuke programme, while Iran funds groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to bleed the Jewish nation.

“A strike within Iran to kill the top political leader of Hamas is quite an achievement, it will be a big shock not just for Hamas but also to its main sponsor, Iran,” Bloomberg senior editor Bobby Ghosh told CNN.

“It is a tremendous embarrassment for Iran for Haniyeh to be killed on Iranian soil,” added Bobby Ghosh.

He called it a “loss of prestige” for Iran.

That Iran has received the message was clear from the emergency meeting of its Supreme National Security Council convened at the residence of Khamenei. Such meetings only take place during extraordinary circumstances, US media reported, citing two Iranian officials.

HANIYEH ON ISRAELI CROSSHAIRS SINCE OCTOBER 7

Haniyeh, who was briefly the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2006, was one of the top political leaders of Hamas. Along with other military leaders like Yahya Sinwar, Israel blamed Haniyeh for the October 7 attack in which Hamas terrorists massacred over 1,000 Israelis and took dozens others as hostages.

Though Israel didn’t claim responsibility for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, most fingers point towards its direction.

A statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards blamed Israel for the attack, saying Haniyeh was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.

Israel had declared all Hamas political and military leaders were targets since the October 7 attacks.

It has been going after Ismail Haniyeh and his family members, who it accuses of being part of the Hamas fraternity.

Israel targeted Haniyeh’s residence in Gaza City just a month after the October 7 attacks. In April Haniyeh’s three sons were killed in Israeli airstrike too. In June, another airstrike killed 10 members of Haniyeh’s family in northern Gaza’s Shati refugee camp.

HOW ISRAEL ASSASSINATED IRANIAN NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS

Israel and the US have blamed Shia Iran for operating a secretive nuclear programme with the goal of getting hold of nuclear weapons.

In the 10 years between 2010 and 2020, five top Iranian scientists linked to its nuclear programme were assassinated.

At times, they were shot by motorcycle-borne gunmen or killed remotely through bombs.

It was reported that Israel had stopped the assassination campaign in 2013 under pressure from the US. However, it resumed it some years later.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon had in a 2015 interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel daily said Israel could resume assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists if Iran continued its nuclear weapons programme.

In 2020, a top Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling in a car outside Tehran.

Iran has arrested dozens of people who the Shia regime believed to be assassins working for Israel’s spy agency Mossad.

WHY THE KLILLING OF HANIYEH A LOSS OF FACE FOR IRAN

The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh shows that Israel has the capability to strike where and when it chooses.

Israel didn’t go for a knee-jerk reaction when it saw a large-scale attack from Iran through 300 drones and missiles on April 13, 2024. That attack was the first direct attack from Iranian soil against Israel.

The attack came after two Iranian military commanders and another general were killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Damascus on April 1.

It was on April 19 that Israel struck an S-300 missile defence system near Esfahan in Iran. This attack demonstrated Israel’s capability to target deep inside Iran, evading detection and air defences, leaving Iran’s nuclear and military facilities more vulnerable to attack.

The killing of Ismail Haniyeh will be seen as a loss of face for Iran as it failed to protect an asset. Hamas is funded by Iran and Tehran in this case failed to shield a leader visiting at an official ceremony.

Experts see an Iranian counter to the attack in Tehran coming soon.

“Iran could launch a missile attack against Israel and try to tax its air defence system as we saw some months ago. It could also mount terrorist attacks on Israel’s installations not just in the Middle-East but anywhere in the world,” Retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton told CNN.

Colonel Leighton said that a cyberattack from Iran was also a possibility.

Bloomberg’s Bobby Ghosh told CNN why he believed that the strike was spectacular and symbolic.

“It is a huge embarrassment for Iran to have this happen on Iranian soil. To have a state guest killed by a sworn enemy on home soil is a big blow to its prestige,” said Ghosh.

“Israel has the capacity to strike within Iran. But usually it has struck lesser targets. This is one of the most senior person to be taken out within Iran in this way. This is a big hit to Hamas,” said Ghosh.

Whatever the Iranian counterstrike, Israel has made a spectacular statement by killing Ismail Haniyeh, a guest visiting for an official event in Tehran.