Two agents were involved in the planting of explosives in three rooms within the IRGC guesthouse in north Tehran.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a bomb that was planted by Mossad-recruited IRGC agents in May, not by an aerial strike as reported by Iran and Hamas, according to a report over the weekend.
The UK’s Telegraph reported that the Mossad hired agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) to plant explosives in the guest house Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was staying while attending the funeral of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in May.
However, the strike couldn’t be carried out because of the large number of people inside the building and the high probability of failure.
Instead, the explosives were kept in place for a future time Haniyeh would be staying there and were detonated remotely after the agents left Iran.
Two agents were involved in the planting of explosives in three rooms within the IRGC guesthouse in north Tehran.
Although the agents left the country, they still had contact with Iran.
An official within the IRGC told The Telegraph that “they are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit.”
The official continued, “This is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”
“It’s still a question for everyone how it happened; I can’t make sense of it. There must be something higher up in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” he added.
Esmail Qaani, the commander of the IRGC Quds force, is conducting an investigation and is identifying people to be fired, jailed, or executed for the breach.
The official said, “The breach has humiliated everyone.”
“The Supreme Leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days; he wants answers,” he added.
The official concluded, “For him, addressing the security breach is now more important than seeking revenge.”
Perhaps to save face, Iran and Hamas have both claimed that an aerial missile killed Haniyeh, but this has been debunked by the IDF and the recent report by IRGC official who spoke to The Telegraph.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that there were no other aerial attacks on Tuesday night but the one that killed Shukr.
“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,” he said.
The Telegraph speculated that the lapse of security that led to the killing of Haniyeh may have been intentional and may have been a way to embroil new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a conflict with Israel and cause him to abandon his reformist policies.
On Friday night, Pezeshkian’s son, Dr. Yousef Pezeshkian, said the goal of his father’s administration “is not war with Israel.”
He added, “Social reforms and progress in Iran are the best counter-attacks that we can direct at Israel.”