Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, according to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard early Wednesday, with Hamas attributing the attack to Israel.

Israel had previously pledged to target Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders in response to the group’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and approximately 250 hostages.

An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, as Israel often refrains from commenting on assassinations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency.

Hamas stated that Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence in Tehran after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president.”

The group declared, “Hamas announces to the great Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nations, and all free people of the world that our brother leader Ismail Haniyeh is a martyr,” in a brief statement.

In a separate statement, Hamas quoted Haniyeh as saying that the Palestinian cause has “costs” and that “we are prepared to pay these costs: martyrdom for Palestine, for God Almighty, and for the dignity of this nation.”

Hamas officials did not provide immediate responses to requests for additional comments.

Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had been living in exile in Qatar. Yehya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, was behind the October 7 attack.

In April, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza resulted in the deaths of three of Haniyeh’s sons and four of his grandchildren. During an interview with Al Jazeera at that time, Haniyeh stated that these losses would not force Hamas to soften its stance amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Israel.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday, along with other Hamas officials and representatives from Hezbollah and allied groups.

Iran has not provided details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Revolutionary Guard said the attack is under investigation.

Analysts on Iranian state television quickly attributed the attack to Israel.

The killing of Haniyeh follows a rare Israeli strike on Beirut, which Israel claimed killed Fouad Shukur, a senior Hezbollah military commander.

Hezbollah has not confirmed Shukur's death, and the strike also resulted in the deaths of at least one woman and two children, with dozens more injured.

This attack occurred amid rising tensions with the Lebanese militant group. The U.S. also holds Shukur responsible for the 1983 Marine bombing in Beirut.

There was no immediate response from the White House. This apparent assassination comes at a critical time, as the Biden administration is working to broker a temporary cease-fire and a hostage release agreement between Hamas and Israel.

CIA Director Bill Burns was in Rome on Sunday for talks with senior officials from Israel, Qatar, and Egypt. Meanwhile, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is in the region for discussions with U.S. partners.

Israel is suspected of conducting a long-term assassination campaign against Iranian nuclear scientists and others linked to its atomic program. In 2020, top Iranian military nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling near Tehran.

Since the October attack, more than 39,360 Palestinians have been killed and over 90,900 wounded in Israel’s conflict with Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. This count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

—-