Hamas announced on Wednesday,July 31,  that their leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard confirmed the news in a statement, and Iranian state TV reported Haniyeh's death early in the morning.

Although no group has immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, Hamas blamed Israel, calling the assassination "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran." Israel has previously threatened to target Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the group's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and around 250 hostages, prompting ongoing large-scale attacks on Gaza.

Analysts on Iranian state television quickly pointed fingers at Israel for the assassination. Israel has not commented on the incident, a common practice when its Mossad intelligence agency is suspected of involvement in assassinations. Israel has also been linked to a series of assassinations targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and others associated with Iran's atomic program.

Analysts on Iranian state television were quick to blame Israel for the assassination. There has been no immediate response from the White House. This incident occurs at a sensitive time, as the Biden administration has been urging Hamas and Israel to agree on at least a temporary cease-fire and a hostage-release deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome on Sunday for discussions with senior officials from Israel, Qatar, and Egypt in the latest round of negotiations. Meanwhile, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is in the region for talks with U.S. allies.

Israel is suspected of a long-term assassination campaign targeting Iranian nuclear scientists and individuals linked to its atomic program. In 2020, top Iranian military nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling outside Tehran.

Since the October attack, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has resulted in more than 39,360 Palestinian deaths and over 90,900 injuries, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

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