### Assassination of Haniyeh Reveals Israeli Penetration in Iran
**Analysts View the Strike as a Major Intelligence Failure for Iran and a Disturbing Development for Iranian Leadership**
The assassination of Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran has revealed the extent of Israeli infiltration in the Iranian capital, according to analysts. The attack, which Hamas blamed on Israel, occurred at a time when security measures were expected to be at their highest due to the influx of guests for President Masoud Bezhkian’s inauguration.
Haniyeh, who resided in Doha and attended the inauguration ceremony just a day before, was killed in the early hours of Wednesday at his residence in northern Tehran, according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Israel, which typically neither confirms nor denies its covert operations abroad, declined to comment.
Details about the exact nature of Haniyeh’s killing remain unclear. The Fars news agency reported he was killed by an “aerial projectile,” leading to speculation that the attack might have been carried out with a missile or a drone.
Analysts see this strike as a significant intelligence failure on the part of Iranian agencies and a highly disturbing development for Iranian leadership, especially given that it took place when security protocols were presumably at their peak due to the high-profile inauguration event. Hours before his death, Haniyeh had met with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Agnes Lefevre, Deputy Director of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Studies Institute, told Agence France-Presse, “The inability of the Iranians to prevent this assassination is highly embarrassing for Iran.”
**”Spies in Iran”**
The killing of Haniyeh is the latest in a series of attacks believed to be carried out by Israel within Iran. There has long been speculation that Israel has conducted operations through its Mossad agency in Iran, which does not recognize Israel, raising questions about how Israel has obtained such detailed intelligence.
Arch Azizi, a lecturer at Clemson University in the U.S., told Agence France-Presse that the incident “confirms something we have all known: the depth of Israeli penetration into Iranian security agencies.”
Unlike Hamas’ military leadership, Haniyeh was relatively public, making trips abroad, including a recent visit to Turkey where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in April.
Lefevre noted, “We know that the Israelis have spies and thus obtain intelligence in Iran.” She added, “This assassination shows that the entire Israeli intelligence system is advanced enough to acquire all the necessary information, enabling them to execute such an operation.”
One of the most well-known operations, according to The New York Times, was the assassination of prominent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020 using a machine gun assembled by Israeli intelligence agents near his home in Iran, which was then fired from a distance after they left.
The same report stated that Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Masri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda, was killed in Tehran in August 2020 when two attackers on a motorcycle shot him in an operation carried out by Israeli agents on behalf of the U.S.
The current tension began after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, followed by an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. In April, Israel responded to the first direct Iranian attack on its territory by bombing an Iranian S-300 radar system.
The source of this strike is not fully clear yet, but it included at least one missile launched from outside Iran and small attack drones known as “quadcopters,” which were possibly launched from within Iran to disrupt air defenses, according to reports.
Some media outlets, including Iran International TV, have reported that Israeli agents detained and interrogated members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard within Iranian territory to obtain intelligence. There were also suspicions that Israel might have carried out drone attacks inside Iran following mysterious explosions near sensitive sites, though this has not been confirmed.
The assassination of Haniyeh also followed Israel’s bombing of Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut on Tuesday, targeting military leader Fouad Shukr, whom they accused of orchestrating the missile attack that killed 12 boys and girls in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.
Hossni Obeidi, Director of the Center for Studies and Research on the Arab World and the Mediterranean in Geneva, stated, “This operation shows that Iran was unable to secure the Supreme Leader’s and President’s guests.”
Obeidi emphasized in a conversation with Agence France-Presse that the nature of the attack indicates that Israel had “extremely accurate information” about Haniyeh’s location and movements.
By/radwa sherif ✏️✏️📚