Israel Assassinates Hamas Political Leader in Iran

This is probably actually more provocative than bombing the Iranian embassy in Syria.

In terms of what Israel is saying by this… it’s the same thing they’ve been saying.

Haniyeh was supposed to be acting as a negotiator for a ceasefire, but Israel has maintained that they were planning to murder him as soon as possible, and that they have no interest in getting their hostages back through negotiations.

Actually carrying out the murder on Iranian soil is extremely bold, and is going to lead to Iranians getting even angrier. Though they might already have been as angry as it is possible to get; I’m not sure.

CNN:

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in the Iranian capital Tehran, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas on Wednesday.

His killing represents a significant blow to the militant group, eliminating a key figure who headed up its political operations while living overseas.

In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of targeting Haniyeh in a “raid” on his residence in Tehran, following his participation in the inauguration of the new Iranian president.

I don’t know why they are using the term “raid.”

Others are reporting it was an airstrike. If it was an actual physical raid – like, a death squad type raid – that is something else entirely.

The Israeli military said it doesn’t respond to reports in foreign media, though senior officials have previously vowed to eliminate Hamas and its leadership in response to the group’s October 7 attack on Israel.

It is not clear precisely when Haniyeh, a key interlocutor with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on the ongoing hostage and ceasefire talks in Gaza, was killed. The new Iranian president was sworn in on Tuesday and Hamas released pictures the same day of Haniyeh meeting Iranian officials in Tehran.

The killing comes at an especially fraught time for the Middle East, with escalating confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah threatening to expand into a wider regional war and as Hamas continues to battle Israel’s military in Gaza amid an unfolding and catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Haniyeh’s death would “not pass in vain,” while another Hamas official said the group is “ready to pay various prices.”

News of Haniyeh’s death came a day after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military official, Fu’ad Shukr, in a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a populous neighborhood that is also the Iran-backed group’s stronghold. The strike was the most serious Israeli escalation since confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8.

The White House said it has seen the reports of Haniyeh’s death but declined to immediately comment further, according to a spokesperson.

The region is spiraling into massive war. That’s what all indicators indicate. That is what Israel wants and it is increasingly what the Arabs and others in the region want as well.

This week, along with this morning’s assassination, we’ve seen the highest profile attack on Hezbollah by Israel since October 7th in the assassination of one of their top ranking officials in Beirut, and we’ve also seen Turkish President Erdogan threaten to invade Israel. Further, the US secretary of Defense, a gorilla, said the US fully backs Israel if it wants to invade Lebanon.

Everything is escalating, just as the Jews said they wanted it to.

The US is already deeply involved, and they are likely to get more deeply involved pretty soon.