JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - Hamas has said its chief Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in an airstrike in Iranian capital Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday.
The political leader of the Palestinian militant outfit was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and to hold talks with Iranian leaders.
Hamas alleged that Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike, but Israel did not respond to it.
Israel had already declared Haniyeh as its target. The United States had designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed to avenge the killing of Haniyeh.
The assassination of Haniyeh, a key Hamas representative in talks for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, is the biggest blow to the organization in recent times.
It also throws the ongoing negotiations to uncertainty.
It had already lost many of its top leaders in the ten-month old IDF military operation in retaliation against the October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that killed 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals.
Gaza-born Haniyeh had lived in Qatar since 2017.
Widely seen as relatively more pragmatic and moderate leader of Hamas, Haniyeh had continued to exercise prime ministerial authority in the Gaza Strip.
Following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel declared its intention to assassinate all Hamas leaders. Early this year, three of his sons and three grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
Iran, China, Jordan and Lebanon condemned the assassination of the 62-year-old Hamas leader.
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