Riyadh: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah was killed in Iran, the Palestinian group said.
Iran's state television announced the death early Wednesday.
A statement issued by Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Haniyeh and a security guard were ambushed at their residence and are currently being investigated.
Haniyeh, who heads the political office of the Hamas Islamic Resistance, traveled to Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of reformist President Massoud Pezhekian.
The 62-year-old Palestinian leader had earlier met with Pezhekian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: “This killing by the Israeli capture of Brother Haniyeh is aimed at breaking the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieving false goals. We confirm that this increase will fail to achieve its objectives.”
“Hamas is a concept and an institution, not a person. Regardless of the sacrifices, Hamas will continue on this path and we are confident of victory.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthis, said: “Targeting Ismail Haniya is a heinous terrorist crime and a clear violation of law and ideal values.”
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas after the group carried out deadly attacks on settlements outside the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking hostages back to the Palestinian enclave.
Israel immediately launched a devastating military offensive on Gaza and has killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians.
Both sides are trying to negotiate a hostage release deal with the help of US and regional negotiators, which would include an end to the war.
The killing comes amid an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which was blamed for an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children over the weekend.
On Tuesday night, Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon and said it had killed the head of Hezbollah's military operations room, Fuad Shouk, who Israel said was responsible for the attack on the Golan Heights, a charge the Lebanese group denies.
Israel, which has not yet commented on Haniyeh's killing, has previously carried out assassinations in Iran of key figures in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
In 2021, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist.
But since the Gaza war, Israel has been targeting key Hamas and IRGC figures, including Saleh al-Arouri, a leader of the Palestinian group.
In April, Iran said its consulate in Damascus was destroyed and a top general was killed in an attack Tehran blamed on Israel.
Iran immediately launched a barrage of missiles towards Israel, but all of them were shot down. Israel retaliated by attacking sites in Isfahan.
Further tensions between the two sides were averted through diplomacy, but Israel continues to attack Iranian allies in Syria.
While the scale of Israel's military response to Hamas attacks has been condemned, the International Court of Justice has agreed that there may be a possible case that the country engaged in an act of genocide.
Israel has also been accused of using mass punishment and starvation as weapons in its fight against militant groups.
