Palestinian President Abbas ‘strongly condemns’ killing of Hamas chief Haniyeh

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “strongly condemned” the killing of Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli raid in his residence in Tehran, the Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday.

“President Mahmoud Abbas of the State of Palestine strongly condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, deeming it a cowardly act and a serious escalation,” Abbas’s office said in the statement.

“He urged our people and their forces to unite, remain patient, and stand firm against the Israeli occupation.”

In a statement to Al Arabiya, the Advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said,: “The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh is a new Israeli crime. We stand with Hamas and we must now be united.”

In a separate statement, Hamas mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran.”

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also confirmed the death of the Hamas leader in Tehran where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian’s swear-in ceremony on Tuesday, and was killed along with one of his bodyguards.

“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,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.

The Guard said the attack was under investigation.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which 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.