An unverified image of the Tehran building where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31, 2024. (Social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.)
Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Israel, many are intercepted, amid high tensions.
Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel, on August 4, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY.)
NEWS AT A GLANCE. MIDDLE EAST AREA.
US sending more fighter jets and warships to Mideast amid threats from Iran-led axis.
Hamas commander, eight other gunmen killed in IDF drone strikes near Tulkarem.
IDF on ‘high alert’ as Biden vows US to defend Israel against ‘all threats from Iran’.
Israel warns citizens against travel to high-risk countries amid Iranian threats.
US and UK urge citizens to leave Lebanon ‘on any ticket available’.
At least 19 rockets fired at Israel from southern Gaza, the largest barrage in weeks.
IDF releases file seized in Gaza to show Al Jazeera reporter was Hamas member
France urges citizens to leave Iran ‘as soon as possible’
Calling to de-escalate, Biden says Haniyeh’s death has ‘not helped’ negotiations.
Nasrallah: Israel will ‘weep’ for killing top commander; PM: We’re ready for any scenario.
Israel said to strike known Hezbollah smuggling area along Syria-Lebanon border.
Iran warns Hezbollah will strike civilian targets deeper in Israel as war fears heighten.
Jordan calls on its citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.
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Mossad hired……….Haniyeh — report.
The Mossad spy agency enlisted agents from within the Revolutionary Guards to plant explosives in the Tehran guesthouse where Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was staying, according to a Saturday article in The Telegraph.
The report came amid news that the authorities in Tehran were carrying out a series of arrests in connection with the killing, with the New York Times saying senior Iranian intelligence officers, military officials, and staff at the guesthouse were among some two dozen people held.
The Telegraph report appeared to corroborate a New York Times article on Thursday that said the Palestinian terror chief was not killed in an aerial strike as Iran has claimed.
Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death since the explosion early Wednesday morning, though Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hamas, have vowed revenge on the Jewish state.
The Telegraph cited two Iranian officials as saying that the initial plan was to assassinate Haniyeh when he was in Tehran in May for the funeral of the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash. That operation was reportedly called off due to the large number of people in the building and the seemingly high possibility of failure.
Instead, according to the British daily, the agents went ahead and planted explosives in three different rooms at the compound, and later left Iran. The sources quoted in the report said surveillance footage shows them moving discretely from room to room. They reportedly detonated the bombs from abroad.
“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi security unit,” an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the newspaper, referring to a unit tasked with protecting senior officials.
Another IRGC official was quoted as saying: “It is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.” The IRGC runs the guesthouse in an upscale neighborhood of Tehran where Haniyeh and other dignitaries were staying.
“It’s still a question for everyone how this happened, I can’t understand it. There must be something higher in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the official added, noting that a team was working on a spin that would paint the attack as a lesser security breach.
Both Iranian and Hamas officials have claimed that Haniyeh was killed by a missile fired from the air, even launched from outside the country. But asked about the killing on Thursday, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Israeli military did not carry out any other airstrike overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday aside from the assassination of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
“We struck on Tuesday night in Lebanon and killed Fuad Shukr in an accurate aerial strike. I want to emphasize, there was no other aerial strike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night, and I won’t comment further,” Hagari said during a press conference.
Earlier on Thursday, The New York Times had reported that the explosion that killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard was set off by a sophisticated, remote-controlled bomb smuggled about two months ago into his room at the Tehran guesthouse, which lines up with Raisi’s funeral in May.
The official also told The Telegraph that addressing the security breach was more important to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei than seeking revenge, though he reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel hours after the explosion.
The New York Times reported early Saturday morning that Iran had arrested at least two dozen people over suspected connection to Haniyeh’s death, citing two Iranians familiar with the investigation.
Those arrested were said to include senior Iranian intelligence officers, military officials, and staff at the IRGC-run guesthouse.
The Revolutionary Guards Corps’ specialized intelligence unit for espionage has taken over the investigation and was hunting down suspects that it hopes will lead it to members of the assassin team that planned, aided and carried out the killing, two Iranian officials told the Times.
The Telegraph report also suggested that the killing was purposely timed to coincide with the swearing-in ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend, to besmirch the new premier’s reputation.
“No intact brain can accept that this happened by accident, especially on Mr. Pezeshkian’s first day in office,” a source close to Pezeshkian was quoted as saying. “He may have to go to war with Israel within his first few days in office, and it’s all because of the IRGC.”
Israel pledged to target Hamas leaders over the Iran-backed terror group’s devastating October 7 massacre, which saw thousands of terrorists murder some 1,200 people and seize 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Iran and its allies are widely expected to respond militarily to the killings blamed on Israel, though experts have said the retaliation would be measured to avoid a wider conflagration.
The IDF said on Thursday evening that it was on “high alert” and ready to handle any threat, as the country braced for a response to the terror leaders’ assassinations.
The United States, which Iranian and Hamas officials have accused of having approved the Tehran hit, has stressed its commitment to defending Israel against possible ballistic missile and drone attacks from Iran. The Pentagon said on Friday that the US was moving a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintaining an aircraft carrier in the region, both to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard US troops.
In April, a US-led coalition intercepted dozens of missiles and drones fired by Iran against Israel and helped down nearly all of them.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) meets with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 30, 2024. Khamenei.Ir
