The individuals, one of whom was staying in a room near Haniyeh’s, said on Friday that they heard sounds before an explosion shook the building, sounds they said appeared to be consistent with those made by a missile.
“This was definitely a projectile and not a planted bomb,” one of the individuals told MEE, adding that they saw the aftermath of the explosion which appeared to be consistent with an attack by a missile.
The other two individuals, who were staying on separate floors, also witnessed the aftermath of the strike, which resulted in the partial collapse of the ceiling and exterior wall of Haniyeh’s room.
Haniyeh, a veteran Hamas official who had played a key role in talks for a potential ceasefire in Gaza, was killed alongside his long-serving bodyguard Wasim Abu Shaaban on Wednesday, hours after they attended a swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Haniyeh’s killing was the second high-profile Israeli assassination within hours, following a strike in Beirut that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, heightening fears that the region was sliding towards a full-blown war.
A source close to officials in the Iranian presidency told MEE that the building where Haniyeh and several other invited Palestinian guests were staying was situated near Tehran’s Saadabad palace and guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to analysis of the area, the building is situated on a hillside on the northern edge of Tehran, at the foot of the Alborz mountains, and there are no other residential buildings in the immediate vicinity of the compound.
Shortly after the killing, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told reporters, citing eyewitnesses, that the attack was carried out by a missile which “directly struck” Haniyeh.
In his press conference in Tehran, Hayya added that whilst neither Hamas nor Iran were seeking a regional war, the killing needed to be avenged.
Confirmed information about the circumstances of Haniyeh’s death remains sparse and Iranian officials have so far been reluctant to reveal many details of the investigation into the attack.
On Thursday, the New York Times daily newspaper reported that Haniyeh had been killed by a sophisticated bomb planted in his room some two months earlier.
But Fars news agency reported that the investigation indicated that Haniyeh had been “struck by a projectile” and concluded that Israel’s involvement “cannot be ruled out”.
