Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran after attending the inauguration of the country's new president, Iran and the militant group said early Wednesday,
CBS reports.
Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike for the death of the head of the Palestinian militant group's political bureau. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it was investigating the attack and didn't say how it occurred.
Israel has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
An Israeli military spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel often doesn't comment on assassinations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency.
Hamas said Haniyeh was killed "in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran" after he attended the swearing-in of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday along with other Hamas officials and officials from Hezbollah and allied groups.
"Hamas declares to the great Palestinian people and the people of the Arab and Islamic nations and all the free people of the world, brother leader Ismail Ismail Haniyeh a martyr," Hamas said in its terse statement.
In another statement, the group quoted Haniyeh as saying the Palestinian cause has "costs" and "we are ready for these costs: martyrdom for the sake of Palestine, and for the sake of God Almighty, and for the sake of the dignity of this nation."
Hamas officials didn't immediately respond to requests for further comment.
Haniyeh hadn't been in Gaza in years and spent most of his time in Qatar, where Hamas has its primary political office outside of Gaza.
