Mossad hired Iranian agents to plant bombs in Haniyeh’s residence - The Telegraph

The initial plan was to assassinate Haniyeh in May during the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a plane crash.

Two Iranian officials told the Telegraph that the operation was not carried out due to the large number of people inside the building and the high likelihood of failure.

Instead, two agents placed explosive devices in three rooms of an IRGC hostel in northern Tehran, where Haniyeh might have stayed.

According to officials with surveillance footage of the building, the agents were seen entering and exiting several rooms within a few minutes.

It is said that the operatives later fled the country but had a source in Iran. At 2 a.m. on Wednesday, they detonated the explosives in the room where Haniyeh was located from abroad.

It is believed that Mossad recruited agents from Tehran's Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit for high-ranking officials. “They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” an IRGC official told the Telegraph.

He added: “Upon further investigation, they discovered additional explosive devices in two other rooms.”

A second official from the IRGC's elite military forces told the publication that this is a humiliation for Iran and a serious security breach.

The official said a task force was set up to come up with ideas to frame the killing as unrelated to a 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.

Currently, various IRGC sectors are blaming each other for the failures, the first source reported.

Esmail Qaani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, stated that the breach humiliated everyone and called for the dismissal, arrest, and possibly execution of those responsible.

“The Supreme Leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days, he wants answers," the official reported.

On August 31, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. It is still unclear how he died - whether from an airstrike or a bomb planted in the building. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel for the attack, though Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the operation.