Haniyeh killing exposes Israel's reach inside Iran: analysts

The killing in Tehran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, which the Palestinian militant group has blamed on Israel, has exposed the depth of Israeli penetration inside the Islamic republic, analysts say.

Doha-based Haniyeh, who the day earlier had attended the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, was killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a residence in northern Tehran, according to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Israel, which usually neither confirms nor denies secret operations abroad, declined to comment.

Details on how Haniyeh was killed remain sketchy, with Iran's Fars News Agency saying he was "martyred by a projectile from the air", raising speculation of a possible strike by a missile or a drone.

Analysts see the strike as a major intelligence failure by the Iranian services and a deeply disturbing development for the Iranian leadership, especially at a time when security would have been heightened due to the influx of guests for the inauguration.

Hours before he was killed, Haniyeh had held a face-to-face meeting with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"That the Iranians were not able to stop this assassination is very embarrassing for Iran," said Agnes Levallois, deputy president of the Paris-based Institute of Research and Studies for the Mediterranean and Middle East (IREMMO).

  'Spies in Iran' 

But the killing of Haniyeh is just the latest in a line of attacks believed to have been carried out by Israel inside Iran.

Israel is long believed to have carried out sabotage operations through its Mossad espionage agency inside Iran, which refuses to recognise Israel, raising questions over how it appears able to...