Risk of 'wider war higher now than it's ever been' following Ismail Haniyeh's death

Hamas said its chief political leader had been killed by Israel in a raid on his residence in Tehran.

Hamas has released a statement saying Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group, has been killed. Source: AAP / Hassan Ammar / AP

Key Points

• Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly been killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
• Israel has been accused of assassinating Haniyeh but is yet to comment on the incident.
• There are concerns Haniyeh's death will escalate conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

War on an even wider scale is "closer than ever before" following the reported assassination of the leader of Hamas, according to a former Australian ambassador with expertise in the Middle East region.

Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh is understood to have been killed in Iran.

His death is being reported as an assassination, with Hamas and others accusing Israel of being behind it.

Ian Parmeter from the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian University told SBS News he doubted there was a way for Iran to respond that would not escalate the current situation.

"The whole region is now much closer towards a wider war than it has been before," he said.

Israel is yet to comment on the matter but this is what is known so far.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the United States was not involved in or made aware of the alleged assassination of Haniyeh.

"This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It's very hard to speculate," Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia.

Haniyeh was on a visit to Tehran

A senior Hamas official has directly accused Israel of killing Haniyeh.

According to a statement from the Palestinian militant group, Haniyeh was killed in Iran's capital Tehran.

In the statement, the Islamist faction mourned the death and said Haniyeh was killed in "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran".

Haniyeh spent his time between Türkiye and Qatar and had been part of Hamas' international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike this year.

He arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the inauguration of Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in parliament.

He had met with Pezeshkian as well as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) confirmed the death and said one of Haniyeh’s bodyguards had also died.

Investigation underway, Iran says

A statement by the IRGC's Sepah news website said: "The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred."

While the cause of the "incident" was not immediately clear, the IRGC said it was "being investigated".

Hamas' political leader Ismael Haniyeh was killed in Iran.

Iranian state media has since reported Haniyeh was assassinated around 2am on Wednesday, adding that he was staying at "a special residence for war veterans in north Tehran".

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that Israel would face "harsh punishment" for Haniyeh's death.

"With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for harsh punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said in a statement carried by official news agency IRNA.

Hamas reacts to Haniyeh's death

A senior Hamas official has described Haniyeh's death as a "grave escalation" of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Sami Abu Zuhri said "This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve fake goals."

"We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives," he said.

"Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons. Hamas will continue on this path regardless of the sacrifices and we are confident of victory."

Hamas' armed wing said the killing of Haniyeh takes the war with Israel to "new levels", warning of repercussions for the entire region.

"The criminal assassination of leader Haniyeh in the heart of the Iranian capital is a watershed and dangerous event that takes the war to new levels and will have enormous consequences for the entire region," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, whose fighters are engaged in fierce battles with Israeli troops in Gaza, said in a statement.

International reactions

A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry also blamed Israel.

"It has been revealed once again that the Netanyahu Government has no intention of achieving peace.

"This attack also aims to spread the war in Gaza to a regional level. If the international community does not take action to stop Israel, our region will face much greater conflicts."

A veteran Thai politician who had previously been involved in negotiations for the release of hostages in Gaza said he feared increased violence would follow.

Areepen Uttarasin said: "The assassination is very serious because it occurred in Iran, it shows that Hamas' opponents can strike anywhere."

"Assassinating the Hamas leader will make negotiations and de-escalation more difficult. Things will become more violent and the situation will worsen, it will not improve."

Parmeter, who is a former Australian ambassador to Lebanon, said not only would the situation likely have put a hold on negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza but it would also increase violence between Iran and Israel and between Israel and its neighbours.

He said that, if Israel was responsible for Haniyeh's death, Iran would be angry and would "want to retaliate in some way".

"We could conceivably, in the worst case, get direct attacks on Israel from Iran with Iranian missiles, rockets and drones," Parmeter said.

"At the same time or separately, Hezbollah rockets and missiles [could be] launched against Israel and we could conceivably also have others involved .... Houthis in Yemen and also of various militia groups in Syria and Iraq," he said.

Parmeter said Iran may also seek to use its cyber capabilities to target Israel "to hack into computers and cause some damage in that way".

He said Haniyeh's death would likely do little to weaken Hamas.

"Hamas has had a lot of its leaders killed by Israel over the years and it replaces them. So although Haniyeh is a major win as far as Israel is concerned, it doesn't necessarily lead to anything like the destruction of Hamas as we currently see it in Gaza."

Gaza war tension escalates on Lebanon front

The Hamas leader's death comes amid concerns of war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah following a Saturday rocket attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of responsibility for the attack that killed 12 children, but the Iran-backed Lebanese group has denied any involvement.

Later on Tuesday, Israel struck Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut in retaliation for the Golan strike.

Iran, which does not recognise Israel and considers it to be its arch-foe, has repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Lebanon.

Regional tensions have soared since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in October, drawing in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.