Iran denounced on Tuesday a “heinous crime” after Israel’s recognition on Monday of the murder of Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh at the end of July in Tehran, which it described as a “shameless admission”.
“With this shameless admission, the Israeli regime openly admits for the first time its responsibility for this heinous crime,” Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani said in a letter to the UN Secretary-General published on the social network x.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted Monday that his country had killed the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the assassination, which had not previously commented publicly.
A war has pitted Hamas against the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement in southern Israel.
In retaliation for the death of Haniyeh and that of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of pro-Iranian Hezbollah killed by Israel at the end of September in Beirut, Iran launched 200 missiles towards Israel on October 1.
According to the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Israel's recognition of the elimination of Haniyeh shows that this military response of October 1 was “legitimate and legal” and that Tehran is right to consider that “Israel's terrorist regime remains the most serious threat to regional and international peace and security.
Israel also killed Haniyeh's successor, Yahya Sinouar, in Gaza in October, considered the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel.
This attack resulted in the death of at least 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established using official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 96 are still being held in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
The military campaign carried out in retaliation resulted in the deaths of more than 45,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government's Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
