Iran has arrested more than two dozen individuals, including high-ranking intelligence officials, military officers and staff at a military-run guesthouse in the capital, Tehran, in response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in its capital, Tehran, the New York Times reports.
Israel’s elite intelligence agency Mossad hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying. Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political office in Qatar, was in Tehran for the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president. The assassination, which came just hours after the presidential swearing-in ceremony, is being seen as a major intelligence and security failure for Iran.
Ali Vaez, Iran director for the International Crisis Group, told the New York Times, “The perception that Iran cannot defend either its homeland or its key allies could be disastrous for the Iranian regime, because it essentially signals to its enemies that if they can’t overthrow the Islamic Republic, they can behead it.”
Reading | 2 Iranian agents, 3 rooms bombed: Details about Mossad’s plot to kill Hamas chief
Iranian security forces conducted a thorough search of the guesthouse premises. They detained employees, confiscated electronic equipment, and examined surveillance footage and guest lists. Senior military and intelligence officials responsible for Tehran’s security were also questioned, and several people were arrested pending further investigation.
Haniyeh was housed in a room in this compound managed by the IRGC, which he often used during his visits to Tehran.
The investigation has been taken over by a special intelligence unit for espionage of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC. The unit is actively searching for suspects to trace the network responsible for the killing.
Iranian and Hamas officials have accused Israel of plotting the assassination, a stance supported by several US officials. Israel has not accepted responsibility for the attack, maintaining its stance of eliminating Hamas’s military capabilities.
According to The Telegraph, Israel’s initial plan was to assassinate Haniyeh in May, when he was on a visit to Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. According to two Iranian officials who spoke to The Telegraph, the operation was aborted due to the large crowds, which posed a great risk of failure. Two agents working under the direction of Mossad placed explosive devices in three separate rooms of the IRGC guesthouse in northern Tehran.
The killing has been confirmed by IRGC officials, who now believe that the Mossad carried out the killing using agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi Security Unit, a group responsible for protecting high-ranking officials inside and outside the country.
Israel has previously targeted Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders, including the high-profile assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. These operations often involve sophisticated technology and precise execution.
A few days before Haniyya’s assassination, Iran’s Intelligence Minister Saeed Esmail Khatib claimed success in dismantling Mossad’s network of infiltrators. However, Haniyya’s assassination contradicted these assurances of any security failure.
