From Paris to Beirut: Israel’s long record of assassinating Palestinians

Ismail Haniyeh is the latest in a list of Palestinian leaders believed to have been assassinated by Israel.

Hamas political boss Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Wednesday, after the building where he was staying was struck in an attack that the Palestinian group blamed on Israel.

The group said that Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike” on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. His death comes a day after Israel targeted Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

The assassination comes amid Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, in which more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, when Hamas fighters entered southern Israel in an assault during which 1,139 were killed, and 250 people were taken captive.

Iran has said it is investigating the killing. Israel has yet to comment. But after October 7, Israeli officials had publicly threatened that senior Hamas leaders were on its kill list. In recordings made public on December 4, 2023, the chief of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, said that the country would kill Hamas leaders “in every location, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone”.

Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran also follows a long pattern of assassinations of Palestinian leaders, from Rome to Paris, Beirut to Athens, and from Gaza to Tunis. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for the killings — though it usually also does not deny its role. And analysts are convinced that these assassinations bear Israel’s stamp, stretching over more than half a century.