Israel confirms assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran

Israel confirms  assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh in  Tehran.

Ismail Haniyeh  speaks into a microphone with  a Palestinian flag in the  background. Ismail Haniyeh was  Hamas leader until the group confirmed his death in Iran in July
Israel's  defense minister has  admitted for the first time that Israel killed  Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in  July.
Israel Katz made the comments in a speech vowing to target  leaders of the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen, which has  fired missiles and drones at  Israel.
Haniyeh was killed in a building where  she was staying in the Iranian capital in an attack widely  blamed on Israel.
Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said progress had been made towards a  Gaza ceasefire  agreement with Hamas, but he could not give a  timetable for  an agreement. The statement comes after a senior Palestinian official told the BBC that  negotiations between Hamas and Israel were  90 percent complete, but key issues  remained unresolved.

In his speech, Katz said Israel  was "hitting hard" on the Houthis and  would "behead" their leadership.
"As we did with Haniyeh, [Yahya]  Sinwar and [Hassan] Nasrallah in Tehran,  Gaza and Lebanon, we will do  it in Hodeida and  Sanaa," he said, referring to  the leaders of Hezbollah and  Hamas, all of whom have  been. . killed this  year.
Haniyeh, 62, was widely considered  Hamas's supreme leader and played a key role in negotiations  to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza  Strip.
After his assassination, Hamas  appointed Yahya Sinwar, its leader in Gaza and one of the  main architects of the  October 7 attacks, as the group's overall  leader. Sinwar was killed by the Israeli military  during a  random encounter in Gaza in  October, and the group is still choosing a new  leader.
Hassan Nasrallah was the leader of the  Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah - he was  killed in Beirut in  September, as Israel  sharply escalated its military campaign against Hezbollah, with which it  has exchanged almost daily cross-border fire since the  attacks on October  7.
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The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that controls  northwestern Yemen, began attacking Israeli and international  shipping in the Red Sea shortly after Israel began targeting Hamas in Gaza last  October.
The group has vowed to continue until the  end of the war in  Gaza.
On Saturday,  the Israeli military said its  efforts to shoot down a projectile  fired from Yemen  had failed and  that the missile  had hit a park in Tel Aviv. A Houthi spokesman said the group  struck a military target using a hypersonic ballistic  missile.
Last week, Israel launched strikes  on what it said were Houthi military targets, hitting ports  and energy infrastructure in  Yemen's capital, Sanaa. The  United States and  the United Kingdom have also  struck Houthi targets  in an operation to protect international  shipping.
Hamas attacked Israel in October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251  hostages.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign to  crush Hamas in Gaza  that has continued for more than a year and killed 45,317  people, according to the  Hamas Health Ministry in the  Gaza Strip. The toll includes 58 people killed by Israeli  strikes in the past 24 hours, Hamas officials said. Local medical officials said at least 11 people were killed in three separate strikes  in the al-Mawasi area, which had been designated a  "safe zone" by the Israeli military. Israel said it  targeted a Hamas  fighter.
On Monday, Israel said three of its soldiers had been killed in the northern Gaza  Strip.
Humanitarian and  human rights groups have warned of a catastrophic situation for civilians in  Gaza. On Sunday, Oxfam said  that only 12 trucks had  delivered food and water  to northern Gaza  in the past  two and a half months and  accused the Israeli military  of "deliberate delay and systematic  obstruction."
"For three of  them, after the food and water  were delivered to the school where people were  taking refuge, it was  evacuated and  bombed within  hours," Oxfam  added.
Israeli authorities said the report  "deliberately and  inaccurately" ignored "Israel's extensive humanitarian efforts in the northern Gaza  Strip."
Israel insisted that specific shipments  "including food,  water and medical  supplies" were sent to areas of  northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia, where the Israeli military has been  conducting a military operation  for several months, which it says is  aimed at Hamas fighters who  have gathered there.
Oxfam's report comes after  human rights groups Amnesty accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" by deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians in Gaza of  proper access to  water. The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the Amnesty report  "completely false and based on  lies," while the Israeli  Foreign Ministry spokesman said  that Human Rights Watch was  "again spreading its  bloody slander... The truth is the complete opposite of HRW's  lies."