Report: Assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran almost went awry due to broken AC unit in room he was staying in

Israel waited until after the inauguration of new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian to assassinate former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran to not disrupt the inauguration proceedings, Channel 12 reports, sharing what it says are new details of the intricate operation. Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed for the first time last week that Israel was behind it.

Haniyeh was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in his guest house when he visited Tehran for the inauguration in July.

According to the heavily censored report, the plan — which had been in the works for months — almost went awry at the last minute, when the air conditioner unit in Haniyeh’s room broke in the middle of the night.

After it broke, Haniyeh left the room for an extended time, leading to concerns that he had switched rooms for the remainder of the night.

In doing so, Hanieyh would have inadvertently prevented his own death, as given the small size of the bomb, he needed to be present in the room when it was detonated.

However, staff ultimately managed to fix the air conditioner unit, and Haniyeh returned to his room, the report states. The bomb was then detonated at around 1:30 a.m.

Following his assassination, Haniyeh was replaced as Hamas political leader by Yahya Sinwar, until then the group’s military chief. Sinwar’s reign was short-lived, however, as he was killed in southern Gaza’s Rafah in October.