The leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated by an explosive device that had been arranged by Israeli intelligence services to be placed in his bedroom at the Islamic Republic’s visitor’s residence in Tehran, two sources told Axios on Thursday.
The news outlet described the bomb as being a high-tech AI-capable instrument that was positioned at the location two months before the remotely operated explosion killed the 62-year-old terror chief and one of his bodyguards.
The guesthouse where Haniyeh was residing is part of a secure compound situated in an affluent section of Iran’s capital city and is maintained by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Photographs of the blast area show that the incursion was strong enough to cause the partial collapse of one of the building’s outer walls.
Five hours after the attack, the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, reportedly met with members of his National Security Council where he instructed the participants to devise a reprisal action against the Jewish state.
Although Israel has not publicly commented on the matter, the report confirmed that officials in Jerusalem briefed their Washington counterparts on the details of the operation shortly after the incident occurred.
According to Axios, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to eliminate Haniyah due to frustration with the Islamist's hardline stance on the ongoing negotiations in Qatar concerning the Gaza conflict.
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