Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most prominent figures of Hamas, was assassinated this morning (Wednesday, July 31) in an attack in Iran.

Iranian media, quoting the country's Revolutionary Guard, confirmed his death at his residence in Tehran, but have not yet provided more details about the incident.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced that he was attacked by Israel after the inauguration ceremony of Massoud Pezeshkian, the newly elected President of Iran, in Tehran.

Ismail Haniyeh, known as a symbol of the resistance and steadfastness of the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation, was born in 1962 in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza and received a bachelor's degree in Arabic literature from this university. His life was full of challenges and sacrifices, and his family losses have made these struggles even more tangible. Three of Ismail Haniyeh's sons and four of his grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in April.

In the 1980s, Haniyeh joined Hamas and gradually became one of the key figures of this movement. His activities in Hamas gradually made him one of the prominent leaders of this group.

In 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, Ismail Haniyeh was appointed Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. However, severe conflicts between Fatah and Hamas in 2007 led to Hamas's control of Gaza, and Haniyeh continued to serve as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.

In 2017, Ismail Haniyeh was elected head of Hamas's political bureau. In this position, he had political and strategic leadership of the movement and played an important role in the major decisions of the movement.

Ismail Haniyeh had been living in Qatar in recent years.

The US Department of State placed Ismail Haniyeh on the terrorist list in 2018.