Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran after Israel vowed to kill him and others in retaliation for Oct 7 attacks

A top Hamas leader has been killed after a targeted attack in Tehran. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas chief, was killed while attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president. 

Their statement said that Haniyeh had been killed alongside a security guard in a targeted attack at their place of residence. 

Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political bureau, had been in the capital city as Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in as President of the nation.

In a statement, Hamas blamed Israeli forces on the death of Haniyeh as they announced his death 'to the Palestinian people and the Arab nation'.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House on the death of Haniyeh, while Israel have also not yet commented on his death. 

Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage. 

At least ten members of Haniyeh's family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year, which included his siter. 

The strike hit the Haniyeh family home in Al-Shati refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, last month. 

Pictures show how the building was reduced to rubble, with rescuers working at the scene. 

The victims were extracted and taken to the local hospital, where white body bags were laid out on the ground and distraught mourners seen gathering.

That attack came just weeks after Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli airstrike on their car nearby.

Before their deaths, Haniyeh was believed to have had 13 sons and daughters. The Qatar-based Hamas leader said at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.

In Israel’s war against Hamas since the attack, more than 39,360 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,900 wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. 

The apparent assassination comes at a precarious time, as the Biden administration has tried to push Hamas and Israel to agree to at least a temporary cease-fire and hostage-release deal.