According to a report following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Israel recruited security personnel in Iran to install explosives in the hotel in Tehran where the Hamas chief was staying.
The original intention, according to a report in The Telegraph, was to kill Haniyeh when he went to Tehran in May to attend the burial of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The operation was not carried out in May because of the huge number of people inside the building and the high likelihood of failure, according to two Iranian officials who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.
According to the allegation, Haniyeh was being housed in a building where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) agents had hidden bombs in three different rooms.
The Iranian sources who talked with The Telegraph claimed to have seen CCTV footage showing the IRGC officers moving stealthily across several rooms, entering and leaving in a matter of minutes. The agents slipped out of the nation soon after carrying out the operation.
Israel behind Hamas chief killing
According to Iranian sources, Mossad was almost definitely involved in the assassination. It is important to remember, meanwhile, that Israel has not acknowledged nor denied its involvement in Haniyeh’s murder.
An IRGC officer stated, “They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” alluding to the IRGC force in charge of high-ranking officials’ security.
“I still don’t understand how it happened; it’s a mystery to me.”
He continued, “There has to be something more important that nobody is aware of higher up in the hierarchy.
The officials further disclosed that several IRGC sections are accusing one another of security lapses in the midst of the pandemonium, resulting in an internal blame game.
Also Read: How Israel sneaked bomb into Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh room
Tackling security loopholes more important than revenge for Iran
The IRGC Quds force commander, Esmail Qaani, has been calling for people to be sacked, detained, and possibly put to death.
According to one of the insiders, “The Supreme Leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days; he wants answers.”
He continued, “For him, dealing with the security breach is now more important than getting even.”
It’s interesting to note that worries about Israel’s influence within the IRGC have been expressed before. Iran’s former minister of intelligence, Ali Younisi, stated in an interview in 2020 that “all the Islamic Republic officials should be worried about their lives.”
“The reason the Zionist dictatorship hasn’t attacked the Islamic Republic’s political leadership yet is that it hasn’t made the decision to do so. Because of this disregard for Mossad, it has been able to publicly and frequently threaten Islamic Republic officials,” he continued.
