Bomb smuggled into Tehran guesthouse months ago killed Hamas leader
An explosive device hidden in a heavily guarded complex where Ismail Haniyeh was known to stay in Iran was what killed him, according to a Times investigation.
Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of Hamas, was assassinated on Wednesday by an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official.
The bomb had been hidden approximately two months ago in the guesthouse, according to five of the Middle Eastern officials. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood of northern Tehran.
Mr. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the presidential inauguration. The bomb was detonated remotely, the five officials said, once it was confirmed that he was inside his room at the guesthouse. The blast also killed a bodyguard.
Nope, I think this falls under the 'war' flavor, not terrorism.
So blowing up political leaders on the territory of a third party is perfectly fine? Let's say, if Russia cruise missile strikes Zelensky while he's on a visit in Paris, how do you think NATO will respond?
This is applying a double standard
In that case, I guess killing another country's prime minister and chief diplomat is fine.
During times of war it legally is.
Even though the killing of the diplomat may have been legal, conducting an attack on the territory of a country not taking part in the conflict is typically not.
Countries usually don't like it when you conduct assassinations or acts of war on their territory.
Yep, don't disagree. But to some extent, Isreal already believes that it is in a war with Iran.
In that case they should go ahead and declare war, at least if they care about keeping a sliver of legitimacy around their illegal assassinations. Let's see how well that goes...
Israel is 100% reliant on the goodwill of the international community. They've been working double time to wear it thin the past year, I'm honestly starting to wonder how far they'll push it. Without international support, they're just another small Middle Eastern country than can be walked on by Iran/Egypt/Saudi Arabia/Whoever has the biggest stick...
You can argue that it's in support of counterterrorism or denazification, but most of Israel's assassinations take place in third party countries.
Well that makes sense, seeing that they're a state regularly doing thing that would have any other state declared as a "terrorist state" or "pariah state".
Or to quote Nixon, it's not a crime when the president does it.
oh wow. I did not even think like that. So its definatively and act of war in iran territory by israel!
Both Hezbollah and Iran are both at war with Israel and have vowed to destroy Israel many, many times.
I did not realize it was formally declared. Is it like korea then?
I may be mistaken. I've done some Googling. Wikipedia tells me that Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen declared war on Israel when it was founded in 1947. It ended in an armistice (basically a cease fire). In later years, Algeria and Morocco attacked Israel along with others. In 1979, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel, it was the first country to do so. Jordan did so later, but I am not sure when. All of those other countries still are technically in a state of war against Israel. I don't see any mention of Iran being at war with Israel in the past, so I don't think Iran is technically at war with Israel.
yeah that is sorta big in that the reply that started this chain basically is saying if its war its war, but if not its terrorism. So if no state of war exists then it would be terrorism but of course the US hasn't been in a constitutionally declared war since ww2 but then congress has fromally sanctioned military action and then the war powers act allows some stuff with the president so there is at least some trail of formal action. But then we have the cia type of shit.
A lot of people in this sub don't seem to understand what the definition of terrorism is. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the use of violence against civilians for political aims. Hamas is a paramilitary organization, let's just call it an army for ease of discussion. There is currently an actual shooting war going on (no cease fire) between Hamas and Israel. Members of an army's leadership are legitimate targets during times of war.
Now, attacking an army's leadership in a third country (I'm counting Gaza as country 1 and Israel as country 2 for this discussion) can have big, negative repercussions for the country that does the attacking in the 3rd country. However, this assumes country #3 is trying to remain neutral. Iran is anything but a neutral 3rd party in the conflict. They have armed and trained Hamas for decades as well as threatened to destroy Israel many, many times over 40 years. For Israel, there was no real downside to killing that Hamas leader in Iran.
ok so the civilian bombings are more terrorism then and the assassination not so much.
Yes, deliberately going after civilians when there is no nearby military target would be terrorism. Attacking a member of a military organization's chain of command is a legitimate target.