The targeted killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July was the result of an intelligence and sabotage operation that required several Iranian agents and more than five conspirators, Israeli experts told a local television channel in an exposé aired on Saturday.
“This thing required a whole execution network that apparently included people who betrayed their country or their mission,” Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Heyman, the director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University and a former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, told Channel 12.
Benny Sabati, an Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, or INSS, told Channel 12: “There was a network. This couldn’t have been the work of just four-five people on the inside.”
Haniyeh, who headed the Hamas politburo from Qatar, was killed in an explosion at a luxurious Revolutionary Guard guest house in the Iranian capital. He stayed there on a regular basis, including in July for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iranian security officials first thought that the explosion that killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard came from a missile but then realized a bomb had been planted in or near the bed of his regular room at the facility, Ronen Bergman, a writer for The New York Times and Yediot Achronot who specializes in intelligence, told Channel 12.
Hours before the intended detonation time, the air conditioner malfunctioned in Haniyeh’s room where the bomb had been planted, causing Israeli operation planners to fear he would be assigned a different room. But the unit was repaired.
The Mossad did not have on hand a bomb with the desired amount of explosives. It planted a slightly larger one, which did not affect other rooms but did blow a hole in the building’s façade, Channel 12 reported.
The operation was postponed at least twice, including once so it would occur after the inauguration instead of ahead of it, Bergman told Channel 12.
Hamas commander Khalil al-Hayya discovered Haniyeh’s bloodied remains and wept over them immediately after the explosion, according to the report.
Iran fired rockets into Israel on Oct. 1, calling it a retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in September and for the assassination of Haniyeh. The Iranian strikes resulted in limited damage. Israel struck back, reportedly taking out key components of Iran’s air defenses.
Haniyeh was involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when thousands of its terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 250. Israel launched an ongoing military campaign to remove Hamas from the Gaza Strip, killing its top command as well as about 17,000 terrorists, according to INSS estimates.
