TEHRAN – Ismail Haniyeh's son has brought attention to the possible involvement of WhatsApp in the assassination of the Hamas leader in Iran, noting that his father was communicating with family members through the American messaging app at least a few hours before his martyrdom. 

“My father regularly used WhatsApp to keep in touch with our family,” Abdul Salam Haniyeh said in an interview with Arab media. “Based on this, it wasn’t difficult to locate him. Some {media outlets] have been talking about a huge security gap [in Iran] or infiltration”

Technology conglomerate Meta, which owns WhatsApp, has been under fire for facilitating Israel’s propaganda campaign and crackdown on Palestinian voices protesting the regime’s ongoing genocide in Gaza for the past ten months. Some reports suggest Meta has been working in close cooperation with the American government to help identify targets sought by Israel.

The Israeli regime assassinated Haniyeh in a Tehran residence on July 31, only hours after he had attended the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Palestinian leader was targeted by a short-range missile whose warhead weighed 7 kilograms, according to a statement by the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps. 

Some Western media outlets like the New York Times and the Telegraph have claimed to have talked to unidentified “sources” inside Iran, who told them that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb installed inside his room by IRGC members working for the Mossad. The claims have been refuted numerous times, and are seen as a way to make Iran’s potential military action against the regime unjustifiable. 

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed to avenge Haniyeh’s blood. Multiple Iranian officials have reiterated the promise in the past days, with analysts suggesting that other Resistance forces like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansarullah may join Tehran in its retaliation.