Russia has been quick to break its silence on the assassination of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with one of its top ministers branding it an “unacceptable political murder”.
The country’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, was reported by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti as saying: “This is an absolutely unacceptable political murder, and it will lead to further escalation of tensions.”
The Russian state media also reported words from a representative of Hamas, the terror group behind the October 7 attack on Israel. The group also called the death of Haniyeh a “murder”, adding it would prompt retaliatory measures against Israel.
In a statement, the terror group also blamed the killing of the 62-year-old on Israel, where it called the death of its political chief “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV cited one of the group’s senior officials, Moussa Abu Marzouk, as saying the alleged assassination was a “cowardly act that will not go unpunished”.
Jerusalem hasn’t yet directly responded to reports of the death of the political leader of Hamas nor claimed responsibility for it.
Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), said the group was carrying out a “situation assessment”.
He wrote on X: “There are no changes in the home defence policy. At this time, the IDF is conducting a situation assessment.
“If any changes are decided, we will update the public immediately.”
After the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were abducted, the Israeli government vowed to eliminate Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders.
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza in April had killed three of Haniyeh’s sons, two of whom were described by the IDF as Hamas military operatives and the third as a cell commander.
The political chief of Hamas left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and lived in exile in Qatar since. He was in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony for the newly-elected president of the country, Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said the Hamas leader had been killed in Tehran at around 2am local time alongside one of his bodyguards, and that the force was investigating it.