January 17, 2025
An Israeli television station has reported that Hamas leader Esmail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last summer by a bomb planted in his Pasdar guestroom and not by a missile fired from outside the Pasdar compound, thus making the Pasdaran look exceedingly inept by portraying it as deeply penetrated by the Israelis. The Pasdaran were silent about the report.
But Hamas swiftly issued a denial, insisting that the post-assassination investigation by Iran and Hamas showed that Haniyeh was killed by a missile with a large warhead totaling 7-1/2 kilograms of explosives and targeting Haniyeh’s cellphone. It wasn’t clear why Hamas should be so concerned about the method of assassination. Some speculated that the Pasdaran had put Hamas up to issuing the denial.
The Pasdaran have come under increasing criticism for alleged ineptitude. The most recent criticism has focused on the fact that it did not know the Syrian Army would not stand up to the rebel forces that overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in just 11 days. Earlier, there was criticism of the Pasdaran for the failure of its missiles to do much damage when they were fired in two large barrages against Israel. Israeli Channel 12 broadcast a detailed account of what it said was the assassination of Haniyeh in an Israeli covert operation July 30 while Haniyeh was in Tehran for the inauguration of President Pezeshkian.
Haniyeh then went to a Pasdar guesthouse to stay overnight before leaving Iran. Channel 12 reported that shortly before the inauguration, “agents” installed the bomb in the room that Haniyeh was routinely assigned when he visited Tehran. It said the bomb was slightly larger than originally planned but not so big that it threatened those staying in adjacent rooms.
It did not say who planted the bomb. But, to be able to plant anything inside a Pasdar property meant that Israel had to be able to penetrate the Pasdar security shield. It is possible a missile was used and Israeli intelligence just fed Channel 12 a fake story in a scheme to embarrass the Pasdaran, which had quickly insisted a missile was used against Haniyeh. However, the large building in which Haniyeh died is readily visible from adjacent streets and shows no holes in any walls, which would necessarily result if a missile had been fired into Haniyeh’s room.
Shortly after Haniyeh checked into his room, he left to complain that the air conditioner was not working. He was gone for so long that Israel feared he had been assigned to another room and the bombing would have to be canceled, Channel 12 reported. However, the air conditioning was eventually fixed and Haniyeh returned to the room and went to bed. At 1:30 a.m., the bomb exploded, killing Haniyeh and a Hamas guard in the room with him.
