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Bomb smuggled into Tehran guesthouse months ago killed Hamas leader

An explosive device hidden in a heavily guarded complex where Ismail Haniyeh was known to stay in Iran was what killed him, according to a Times investigation.

Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official.

The bomb had been hidden approximately two months ago in the guesthouse, according to five of the Middle Eastern officials. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood of northern Tehran.

Mr. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely, the five officials said, once it was confirmed that he was inside his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard.

Blackmist ,

That’s some Hitman shit right there.

Certainly better than blowing up 100 innocent people to kill one guy who might not have been there anyway.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Certainly better than blowing up 100 innocent people

He was the lead diplomat negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza. They killed him in order to continue massacring innocent people.

JustZ , (edited )
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

Fantastic. Fuck that guy. How many millions of Palestinians did he condemn to die with no hope or prosperity? Not any more.

snek ,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    jordanlund ,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    Removed, civility.

    snek ,
    @snek@lemmy.world avatar

    Fair enough.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    How many millions of Palestinians did he condemn to die with no hope or prosperity?

    He was the lead negotiator working towards a ceasefire. Netanyahu killed him to scuttle further talks.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    The dude built tunnels under schools and hospitals. He didn’t give one fuck about the people of Gaza.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    With a shovel he stretched all the way from Iran?

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    C’mon that’s you’re argument? Ridiculous and uninformed take.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Right back at you.

    This is Zionist fear mongering used to justify the assassination of a diplomat in pursuit of genocide.

    And you’re arguing he deserved to die because “tunnels”.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    “Diplomat.” You have to be from a country to have diplomacs. Terrorists do not get to have countries because if they do, they tend to convert all of its resources and domestic capabilities into instrumentalities and fronts for illegal political violence.

    Because “tunnels?”

    No that’s a simple-minded and reductive take that you’re obviously not making any good faith.

    Those tunnels represent a group of criminals who have plundered the wealth in future of what could be a beautiful country and instead converted it for their own personal gain, which happens to be killing Jews.

    Every good thing Gaza has ever had has been corrupted by terrorists and repurposed to kill Jews. That’s it. Simple as that.

    Did have all the food and water they wanted right now if they didn’t fuck up their airports and waterports by the ing them over to international terrorists with a singular purpose.

    Well, I guess you could say it’s two purposes, if exterminating the Jews is thought of as one purpose and installing a new Islamic caliphate seated in Ramallah to rule the world as a secondary one.

    That’s what you’re defending, a dude who literally is responsible for making sure millions of Palestinians live and die without ever knowing hope or prosperity. For every boogeyman that you imagine is out here being happy that Palestinian kids are getting killed, nobody was happier to see kids die to Israeli bombs than this dude.

    snek ,
    @snek@lemmy.world avatar

    "Terrorists do not get to have countries because if they do, they tend to convert all of its resources and domestic capabilities into instrumentalities and fronts for illegal political violence."

    Bro that is literally the definition of Israel. Human rights violations since its founding and until today.

    I guess that means Hamas has every right to retaliate (according to your OWN definition and logic).

    And of all the places where a caliphate could spring into life, the very fact that you chose to say “Ramallah” is a stark reminder that you know so little about Palestine or its demographic.

    After all, we are not people to you 😊

    snek ,
    @snek@lemmy.world avatar

    The IDF puts hospitals next to military installations and forces everyone aged 18 to do military service where they end up abusing and killing Palestinians.

    Guess that makes it okay to kill anyone in Israel, and you for supporting it, because tunnels military installations near civilian areas.

    He didn’t give one fuck about the people of Gaza.

    Fuck Hanieh. But also fuck you. It’s not like you view Palestinians as human beings to start with.

    sozesoze ,

    Netanyahu really doesn’t want these negotiations to come through, does he? How can he go to the hostage families and tell them he’s gonna get their relatives back when he bombs the shit out of the country they’re hidden in, has blown up and wanted to funnel sea water into the tunnels where they are most likely held (from an outsiders perspective) and now basically shot someone in the face across the negotiating table?

    Tell me how that makes sense.

    amorangi ,

    He wants the Palestinians “gone” - he doesn’t care about anything else, certainly not the hostages. In fact having hostages allows him to “keep going”.

    floofloof ,

    The assassination threatened to unleash another wave of violence in the Middle East and upend the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Mr. Haniyeh had been a top negotiator in the cease-fire talks.

    The other Palestinian negotiators might just possibly take Israel blowing up the guy they’re talking to as a sign that Israel is not negotiating in altogether good faith.

    kerrypacker ,

    Well they’re not negotiating with people who aren’t terrorists…I don’t think you understand what negotiations are or why they’re necessary.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar
    • If you’re taking the side of the Palestinians, you’re a terrorist
    • We will not negotiate with terrorists
    • kills all the negotiators
    • Palestinians refuse to accept our peace deals. This just proves they’re all terrorists.
    pelletbucket ,

    the bomb that almost got Margaret Thatcher had been placed nearly a month earlier. one of the ones that almost got Hitler had been placed two days prior

    IphtashuFitz ,

    Paywall bypass: archive.ph/i4IPq

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Does this constitute Israeli terrorism? And will the international community move to condemn and sanction these acts?

    conquer4 ,

    Nope, I think this falls under the ‘war’ flavor, not terrorism.

    HubertManne ,

    oh wow. I did not even think like that. So its definatively and act of war in iran territory by israel!

    CoCo_Goldstein ,

    Both Hezbollah and Iran are both at war with Israel and have vowed to destroy Israel many, many times.

    HubertManne ,

    I did not realize it was formally declared. Is it like korea then?

    CoCo_Goldstein ,

    I may be mistaken. I’ve done some Googling. Wikipedia tells me that Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen declared war on Israel when it was founded in 1947. It ended in an armistice (basically a cease fire). In later years, Algeria and Morocco attacked Israel along with others. In 1979, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel, it was the first country to do so. Jordan did so later, but I am not sure when. All of those other countries still are technically in a state of war against Israel. I don’t see any mention of Iran being at war with Israel in the past, so I don’t think Iran is technically at war with Israel.

    HubertManne ,

    yeah that is sorta big in that the reply that started this chain basically is saying if its war its war, but if not its terrorism. So if no state of war exists then it would be terrorism but of course the US hasn't been in a constitutionally declared war since ww2 but then congress has fromally sanctioned military action and then the war powers act allows some stuff with the president so there is at least some trail of formal action. But then we have the cia type of shit.

    CoCo_Goldstein ,

    A lot of people in this sub don’t seem to understand what the definition of terrorism is. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the use of violence against civilians for political aims. Hamas is a paramilitary organization, let’s just call it an army for ease of discussion. There is currently an actual shooting war going on (no cease fire) between Hamas and Israel. Members of an army’s leadership are legitimate targets during times of war.

    Now, attacking an army’s leadership in a third country (I’m counting Gaza as country 1 and Israel as country 2 for this discussion) can have big, negative repercussions for the country that does the attacking in the 3rd country. However, this assumes country #3 is trying to remain neutral. Iran is anything but a neutral 3rd party in the conflict. They have armed and trained Hamas for decades as well as threatened to destroy Israel many, many times over 40 years. For Israel, there was no real downside to killing that Hamas leader in Iran.

    HubertManne ,

    ok so the civilian bombings are more terrorism then and the assassination not so much.

    CoCo_Goldstein ,

    Yes, deliberately going after civilians when there is no nearby military target would be terrorism. Attacking a member of a military organization’s chain of command is a legitimate target.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    In that case, I guess killing another country’s prime minister and chief diplomat is fine.

    Bernie_Sandals ,
    @Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world avatar

    During times of war it legally is.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Or to quote Nixon, it’s not a crime when the president does it.

    thebestaquaman ,

    Even though the killing of the diplomat may have been legal, conducting an attack on the territory of a country not taking part in the conflict is typically not.

    Countries usually don’t like it when you conduct assassinations or acts of war on their territory.

    conquer4 ,

    Yep, don’t disagree. But to some extent, Isreal already believes that it is in a war with Iran.

    thebestaquaman ,

    In that case they should go ahead and declare war, at least if they care about keeping a sliver of legitimacy around their illegal assassinations. Let’s see how well that goes…

    Israel is 100% reliant on the goodwill of the international community. They’ve been working double time to wear it thin the past year, I’m honestly starting to wonder how far they’ll push it. Without international support, they’re just another small Middle Eastern country than can be walked on by Iran/Egypt/Saudi Arabia/Whoever has the biggest stick…

    PyroNeurosis , (edited )

    You can argue that it’s in support of counterterrorism or denazification, but most of Israel’s assassinations take place in third party countries.

    thebestaquaman ,

    Well that makes sense, seeing that they’re a state regularly doing thing that would have any other state declared as a “terrorist state” or “pariah state”.

    itslilith ,
    @itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    So blowing up political leaders on the territory of a third party is perfectly fine? Let’s say, if Russia cruise missile strikes Zelensky while he’s on a visit in Paris, how do you think NATO will respond?

    This is applying a double standard

    Glowstick ,

    If this is true, why would they release the information about how they did it?

    Yes there is some psychological warfare effect that will make hamas people feel scared for a short amount of time, but it will also make them change their security procedures to help prevent this method from working in the future. Their forensics were going to determine that it was a bomb, but they wouldn’t have been able to tell that the bomb was planted so far ahead of time.

    I’m not convinced this story is true. I’m not saying it’s false, but i am saying they had no incentive to tell the truth, and in fact they have incentive to lie so that hamas puts work into securing against the wrong method.

    rbesfe ,

    What makes you so confident it’s Israeli officials leaking the info? The plot would be pretty easy to unravel after the fact by anyone involved in the investigation

    Glowstick ,

    Explain to me how they could easily tell it was a bomb that was placed there 2 months ago. And that it was detonated remotely. And all the other details.

    Xeroxchasechase ,

    “I don’t know” is somewhat different than “I know”, you know…

    Glowstick ,

    I have no idea what you’re trying to say

    Xeroxchasechase ,

    “Explain to me how” is not a statement that should prove that any point, it’s just a pretense for theories and doubt

    mlg ,
    @mlg@lemmy.world avatar

    Probably security camera footage and some logic with when the bomb detonated.

    I wouldn’t be surprised at all knowing Israel successfully pulled this off because they’ve done similar things before.

    The funny part is that it was probably just a sellout that they bought with some chump change to smuggle the device in, and not some super secret undercover spy.

    IphtashuFitz ,

    I think it depends greatly on how the bomb was planted. Suppose, for example, the building was undergoing some renovations and the bomb was hidden inside a wall that had been legitimately opened up as part of the renovations. The debris would show the bomb was in the wall, and they could probably easily pinpoint when during the renovations that wall was worked on.

    MutilationWave ,

    I work in various levels of “secured” locations and sometimes cut open walls. Most places couldn’t tell you what walls I even cut let alone when.

    Gork ,

    This is some Sam Fisher Splinter Cell infiltration shit that you’d usually expect to see in video games or Hollywood, not in real life.

    Bluefalcon ,

    I have a feeling it was more Paul Blart then Sam Fisher. If they riding find a bomb in 2 months then they aren’t finding it on you.

    tocopherol ,
    @tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    It could have been an opportunity like they had renovations in the building, an agent disguised as a worker planted it inside the wall or something. Or like a plot on a Sopranos episode, feds snuck into Tony’s house and swapped a lamp with an exact replica with a listening device inside. Definite security failure for a secure compound though.

    Bluefalcon ,

    A safe house with a high value target not checking for two months is crap security.

    CoCo_Goldstein ,

    I believe there are two possibilities: either an Israeli agent snuck inside the house and planted the bomb or they were able to ‘turn’ someone who has access to the house and convince them to plant the bomb. Either way, it doesn’t look good for the IRGC. Heads will roll, perhaps literally.

    ironsoap ,

    Based some of the revealed history of some of these agencies, I feel like Hollywood is both closer and much further off than the reality of what happens. Closer in that history is stranger then fiction, and much further off in that these agencies are not monolithic decision makers and the hydraheaded nature of a political/bureaucracy makes for some strange decision.

    ours ,

    I’m quite curious about spycraft and special operations and you’re right. There are some real-life ops that a movie audience would dismiss as hard to believe or downright phony.

    And Israel is way in the top when it comes to insane military, special operations, spy, and assassination WTFs.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    Good observation. I agree.

    Cethin ,

    Almost certainly not Splinter Cell, creep around in the dark style. It was probably someone who was invited to stay there that planted it, when their guard was lower, or maybe someone disguised as workers doing electrical repairs or something. You can get almost anywhere with a high-vis vest and confidence. You can’t by sneaking around in the dark.

    echodot ,

    They probably knocked out a guard and then wore their clothes to get in the building. Because everybody identifies each other according to clothing and not facial features they were able to get in.

    Then if the Intruder was caught they could always have thrown their briefcase very slowly across the room.

    Empricorn ,

    I love Splinter Cell and and would rather play any game in the series… But you went with it when Hitman exists!?

    IchNichtenLichten ,
    @IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

    Imagine the outrage if the Iranians returned the favor.

    Israel needs to knock this shit off before they start something they can’t finish.

    AmidFuror ,

    Imagine the outrage if Hamas staged a raid on Israeli civilians or Hezbollah rocketed a Druze soccer game.

    IchNichtenLichten ,
    @IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

    Sure, we can go back and tally up all the atrocities on each side. Where would that get us exactly?

    My point is that the Israeli government has done nothing but escalate and escalate. They have no interest in peace, only continued bloodshed and theft of land. That is not a viable tactic in the long term.

    nonailsleft ,

    Worked for plenty of countries before though

    YeetPics ,
    @YeetPics@mander.xyz avatar

    Where would that get us exactly?

    True understanding that two terrorist ideologies are at war and there is no moral high-ground to be found.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Imagine the outrage if Hamas staged a raid on Israeli civilians

    You hardly have to imagine.

    en.wikipedia.org/…/2018–2019_Gaza_border_protests

    The IDF responded by blowing off the kneecaps of entire families of raiders. Adult male raiders, raider wives, and raider children were stopped dead in their tracks.

    Obviously, this is the only sane and rational response to such a vicious terrorist act. I’ll be excited to hear Lemmy applaud the response. And the response to the response. And on and on and on, forever.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Netanyahu wants Iran to return the favor. He needs a forever war to maintain his dictatorial war powers.

    I keep recommending people read this article. It’s from his former best friend and he lays it all out: www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-798324

    Magister ,
    @Magister@lemmy.world avatar

    Imagine others countries too, it means Mossad may have put bombs in various complex around the world, in some Europe countries? in some south American countries? about everywhere in the world, there is maybe bombs hidden under floor or in wall or whatever, waiting for the right moment.

    I guess they also had mics everywhere in this complex.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    They did something devious and crafty, but in a country which has had major security issues for years.

    Let’s not suggest they have superpowers because of it.

    faintwhenfree ,

    Also mics that are recording are super easy to sweep even incompetent intelligence operations will find them because all you need is a beep wand type apparatus that can check for electric signals where there shouldn’t be any, bombs however are a lot harder to find because that would require having well trained dogs on multiple types of exploaives that don’t do anything other than just sniffing explosives. These dogs take years of discipline that requires competence by definition.

    MutilationWave ,

    A lot of sniffing dogs are bullshit anyway. The ones the police use for drugs in the US just take a signal from the officer when to signal.

    Erasmus ,
    @Erasmus@lemmy.world avatar

    The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound

    A bomb placed two months ago? Geeze, not protected very well by these guys now was it.

    I wonder how many more ‘bombs’ are sitting elsewhere waiting to go off.

    small44 ,

    I wouldn’t be surprised if it was done by a traitor

    ralphio ,

    TBH don’t know which one would have been more embarressing for the Iranians. That the air defenses would have let an airstrike in Tehran or that they let the Israelis plant a bomb in a secured compound. Honestly I think this is worse for them.

    kevindqc ,

    And they didn’t find it in two months! No security sweeps?

    Plopp ,

    They didn’t think to check the bomb-shaped clock on the table. Too obvious.

    ProvableGecko ,

    Nah, this is definitely worse. As much as they try Iranians are never going to have anything that resembles western technology, they will definitely have to pay the price for that if/when they try anything. This kinda internal betrayal though, this reveals them as the clowns they are selling out one of their most important allies to their nemesis.

    Gsus4 , (edited )

    I saw a military pundit say the opposite: this is planted by Iran for 2 reasons:

    1. create paranoia to help crack down on society (e.g. “suspicious maids”)
    2. dismiss the idea that Israel is able to find out where and when to hit a target to the minute with extreme precision (through a window, which would look like a bomb exploded from the inside instead of just a maid planting a bomb) and possibly taking an f35-style stealth aircraft into Iranian airspace close to Tehran undetected.
    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    embarressing for the Iranians

    Hosting a diplomat and working to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza is embarrassing.

    Spending months, thousands of man-hours, and a fortune in high tech military equipment to kill the lead negotiator in a peace deal is uber cool and mega elite, just like in a video game, pew pew.

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