Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, in Tehran nearly failed due to an unexpected complication: a broken air conditioning unit, according to a Channel 12 report.
The network revealed new details about the operation on Saturday, days after Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed for the first time that Israel was responsible for the assassination of the Hamas leader.
According to the report, Haniyeh, who was staying at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in the Sa’adat Abad neighborhood, had left his room before the attack due to a malfunctioning air conditioning unit.
He was gone for so long that Israel grew concerned he might have been relocated to another room, which could have jeopardized the entire operation. However, he returned to his quarters shortly after a staff member managed to repair the air conditioning. At 1:30 a.m., a remote-controlled explosive device installed in his room was detonated, killing him instantly.
Haniyeh was killed just hours after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian—a major embarrassment for Iran, which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups with which Israel has ongoing conflicts.
Haniyeh’s death led to his replacement as Hamas’ political leader by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s former military chief. Sinwar was later killed by Israeli forces in Rafah, southern Gaza, in October 2024, a year into the war that began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Katz’s confirmation on Israel’s involvement in Haniyeh’s assassination came after he made a threat against the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen.
“In these days, when the Houthi terror organization is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded the defense systems in Iran, and damaged the [missile] production systems,” Katz said at a recent event for local security officers.
The terrorist group has fired several missiles at Israel in recent days, prompting retaliatory airstrikes from both Israel and the United States.
