Hamas’ representative in Tehran, Khaled Qaddoumi, has been speaking to Pakistani news channels as an eyewitness to the attack on Ismail Haniyeh. He claims that a projectile missile was fired from outside, targeting Haniyeh’s room. He categorically rejects the stories from The New York Times and The Telegraph UK, which suggest that a bomb or device was planted in the room months ago and that Mossad hired Iranian agents to carry out the attack. It’s important to note that the Iranian government has not commented on what actually happened. How can a third-party state completely guarantee to the international media what occurred?

Pakistani anchors on mainstream TV channels are not fully aware of the geography of Palestine and the Middle East, let alone the complicated dynamics of this highly sensitive region. Many Pakistani anchors still do not know the basic fact that Gaza is separate from the main territory of Palestine, and that the Palestinian Authority has no influence or reach inside Gaza. Furthermore, they do not understand the rivalry between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.

Khaled Qaddoumi studied medicine in Pakistan at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He speaks and understands Urdu very well, is married to a Pakistani, and occasionally visits Pakistan. He does not meet or like to talk to those who challenge his narrative.

In interviews during his last visit to Pakistan a couple of months ago, he stated that Hamas has 40,000 soldiers ready to take revenge. However, that revenge has not been seen while Hamas’ leader was murdered in Tehran, where it was never expected. Gaza has been devastated, and 40,000 Palestinians—children, women, the elderly, all civilians—have been killed by Israel, but these 40,000 Hamas soldiers are nowhere to be found.

What he shared in the Pakistani media does not clarify the picture but raises more questions in an already confusing matter, even for experts in such incidents.

1. Has the Iranian government allowed him to speak about what happened? If yes, he is supposed to say that; if not, he should remain tight-lipped like the Iranian government. Anchorpersons should ask him this question.

2. He says he is a witness to the attack. That he is not—he was present on the fourth floor in Haniyeh’s room only after the bomb or missile detonated. He visited the room after the attack, which cannot be considered eyewitness testimony to the attack.

3. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and political leadership have differences on governance. There are two clear divides in the country. The IRGC wants strict adherence to the basic principles of the 1979 revolution, while political leaders, since Mohammad Khatami, favour openness to the world. Additionally, a large number of people in Iran urge the government not to indulge in so many operations outside Iran when the country itself is not in a strong financial position. They emphasise focusing on their own people.

4. He claims a projectile was fired from outside and struck the room, breaking the windows that opened to the outside. The room was exposed to the exterior, as can be seen in the pictures. Why was the room not secure from outside exposure? Even a commoner knows that VVIPs do not stay in rooms with windows that open to the outside, where they can be targeted by snipers.

5. As Khaled said, they stayed at the same place and Haniyeh stayed in the same room a month ago for the funeral of President Raisi. This raises the question: was it safe to stay in the same place again? Here, The New York Times story appears relevant, suggesting that a device was installed there before his stay.

6. Dr Khaled Qaddoumi and another Palestinian Jihad leader were staying on the same floor, yet their rooms remained safe. How sophisticated was the bomb or missile that it damaged only Haniyeh’s room, while the adjacent rooms were intact? Were the killers so considerate of other lives? They have a history of killing thousands of innocent people as collateral damage.

7. The rest house or guest house, where Ismail Haniyeh was staying, is situated in a compound secured by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ highly trained section, Ansar ul Mehdi. We can understand it better as we have the Special Services Group (SSG) in our military. Qaddoumi rejects the information shared by Western media about the arrest of some Iranian military and intelligence officials. The question is, then how is Iran investigating the matter if the concerned security staff is not arrested?

8. This is the first time in the history of the Israel-Iran-Palestine conflict that one party is giving “credit” to another, but the other is not acknowledging it. Netanyahu is the least popular Premier inside Israel since the Toofan Al-Aqsa attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Why is he not accepting responsibility for this major, historic success when he badly needs support from his citizens? Dr Khaled Qaddoumi should clarify this point as well.

9. Yes, Qaddoumi states that Israel and the USA intend to create the impression that Iran is not a trustworthy country for the Palestinian independence movement because Iran failed to provide foolproof security to their leader. But that is a fact—Iran failed. Haniyeh was hit. Nothing can erase this scar from Iran’s reputation.

10. Only a day before Haniyeh’s assassination (midnight, 31 July, Wednesday), the Iranian-backed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in Lebanon (30 July, Tuesday). Why didn’t Iran review and change Haniyeh’s security arrangements immediately after Fuad’s killing?

Unfortunately, the authorities and responsible persons involved are not responding in a responsible manner. It is a clear-cut internal breach of security. There are elements within Iran’s security apparatus who facilitated the attack. From Mohsen Fakhrizadeh to Ismail Haniyeh, from Qasim Suleimani to President Raisi, these consecutive lethal actions prove that Iran’s security system has long been compromised. Iran should review and possibly retire all those working in key positions within this system. Iran must identify, arrest, and punish these elements before threatening others. That is the only way to answer the questions being raised about Iran’s internal failures.

Tazeen Akhtar
The writer has MSc in Mass Communication and is an Expert in Political Science. He writes about Iran and Palestine He can be reached at tazeen303@gmail.com.