Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that Israel had used a “short-range projectile” fired from outside of Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh’s Tehran apartment to assassinate him.
“A short-range projectile with a warhead of approximately 7 kilograms was fired from outside the lodging area to carry out this terrorist operation, resulting in a powerful explosion,” the Guards said in a statement.
It further stated that the strike was “supported by the United States” for Israel.
While witnessing Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration as the next president of Iran, Haniyeh was assassinated early on Wednesday in the country’s capital.
Hamas and Iran have promised to strike back.
The Guards reaffirmed that Israel will face “a severe punishment at the appropriate time, place, and manner” and that Haniyeh would be exacted revenge.
Israel, which has refrained from commenting on Haniyeh’s death, had earlier attacked a south Beirut Hezbollah stronghold.
A top leader of the Lebanese organization that was responsible for the fatal rocket assault on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights over the weekend was killed in that strike.
The latest big incident that has escalated regional tensions during the Gaza conflict, which has attracted forces backed by Iran in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, is the killings.
The calls for retribution in Iran have become louder following Haniyeh’s death.
Retaliatory actions were predicted to be “more diverse, more dispersed and impossible to intercept,” according to the ultraconservative Kayhan newspaper on Saturday.
