A member of Hamas, who resided in the same building as the movement's political bureau chief, Ismail Haneyya, before his assassination, revealed new details about the incident, describing what he witnessed upon entering Haneyya’s room with his companion, Waseem Abu Shaaban. Khaled Qaddoumi, Hamas's representative in Iran, spoke to Al Jazeera and recounted that at around 1:37 AM, "we were in the building and there was a kind of shock; I thought it was an earthquake or heavy thunder. After that, I left my room and found smoke, and I went up to the fourth floor."
Qaddoumi, who was on the second floor, explained that he entered Haneyya's room "where the martyr was lying in his room, the walls facing outside the building were destroyed, and the ceiling was also damaged, with the martyr, may God have mercy on him, in the middle of the room." He also noted that the room was dark "meaning there was no electricity due to the incident," adding, "what I saw was the destruction of the outer walls of the building." He further revealed that the body of Haneyya's companion, Waseem Abu Shaaban, was found in the salon, "holding his Quran and his pure blood on him."
Regarding the "planted bomb," Haneyya was assassinated early Wednesday while in a military area in Tehran after attending the official inauguration of the new President, Masoud Bezhakian. While Western reports, including the New York Times, mentioned an explosive device inside Haneyya's room that was planted long before his arrival, preliminary Iranian investigations indicated that the assassination was carried out by a missile from outside the residence area. However, they did not deny that the assassination occurred from a close distance within Iran, contrary to initial reports suggesting a missile from outside the country.
In response to the host's question about the reports of the planted bomb, Qaddoumi stated in the same interview, “The logic does not align with this matter; this thing (the missile) came from above and penetrated the place, struck the location, and due to its intensity, the lower floors were affected, and part of the second floor where I was was destroyed because of the blow from above.”
