Iran: Ballistic missile attack was ‘self-defense’ after Haniyeh killing

Iran calls Israel’s killing of Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh a “heinous crime,” says it justifies October missile barrage.

By World Israel News Staff

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations said that Tehran’s October ballistic missile barrage targeting Israel was an act of “legitimate self-defense” following the assassination of Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Israel Katz revealed that Israel was behind the July slaying of Haniyeh at a Tehran guesthouse, which marked the first time that Jerusalem formally accepted responsibility for the killing.

Katz said that Israel would eliminate the senior leadership of the Houthis, just as it had killed Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Haniyeh.

Shortly after Katz’s statement, the Iranian mission to the UN released a lengthy statement on X, referring to the assassination as a “heinous crime.”

The letter, addressing UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Security Council President Linda Thomas-Greenfield, demanded that the world body condemn Israel for the slaying of Haniyeh.

Accepting responsibility for Haniyeh’s slaying underscores “Israel’s role in terrorism, legitimizes Iran’s response on 1 October 2024, and reaffirms the Zionist regime as a serious threat to global peace, which must be stopped,” the Iranian mission wrote.

Israel is now “desperately attempting to justify and legitimize its…acts of aggression against Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement claimed.

There was no mention of the Yemen-based Houthis’ continuous ballistic missile attacks on Israel or the fact that the Houthis are funded and directed by Iran.

Iran’s launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israel, which sent virtually all of the Jewish state’s nine million residents into bomb shelters, was a “legitimate and legal, defensive response” to the assassination, they charged.

No Israelis were hurt in the attack, though several air bases sustained serious damage. A Gazan man living in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Jericho was killed by a large piece of shrapnel, which fell directly on top of him as he walked on the street.