TEHRAN – The specter of an imminent Iranian retaliation hangs heavy over Israel as the regime scrambles to contain the fallout from the assassination of Hamas Political Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. With that, Western media has returned to its familiar playbook, spreading unfounded claims like wildfire to protect Israel from facing the consequences of its actions. 

On August 1, a day after Haniyeh was assassinated in his temporary residence in Tehran, the New York Times became the first Western media outlet to push the train of lie and deceit out of the station. It released an article that claimed Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in his room – a bomb that had been hidden inside the room two months earlier.

The NYT relied solely on anonymous sources described as "seven Middle Eastern officials” to make the claims. When the narrative was rejected by Iranian officials, the paper doubled down on its fabricated narrative with a second article instead of offering evidence. 

The second article released on August 3 once again relied on unidentified sources to assert that Iran had "arrested more than two dozen people” including senior intelligence officers, and military officials for the "humiliating security breach" that enabled the assassination of Hamas’ political chief. No details were provided on the identities or roles of the two dozen individuals who the NYT claimed had been detained.

After the American paper set the trend, other Western media outlets began to parrot the narrative it was trying to build. The Telegraph, for instance, said bombs had been hidden in three rooms instead of one and also claimed that Mossad was initially planning to assassinate Haniyeh in May when he attended the funeral of the late President Ebrahim Raisi. 

Like the NYT, other Western outlets reporting on the circumstances of Haniyeh's death have failed to produce any concrete evidence to support their assertions.

How was Haniyeh assassinated?

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) released three separate statements after Haniyeh’s assassination, the last of which explained that the Palestinian leader was martyred by a “short-range projectile” launched from outside his residence in Tehran.

Every other account provided by Iranian and Hamas officials, as well as eyewitnesses, aligns with the details released by the IRGC.

“I personally inspected the place where Ismail Haniyeh was martyred. The walls showed signs of destruction from the outside, while the ceiling had collapsed inwards. Had a bomb exploded within the room, the aftermath would have appeared entirely different,” Khaled Al-Qaddumi, the head of Hamas' bureau in Iran, told the Tehran Times. 

“We all know that Western media is always trying to copy the narrative of the Zionist regime. Western media always try to deceive the audience with fabricated and well-orchestrated scenarios. They have turned into experts in doing that.” He added.

What game is Western media playing?

Western media has a long history of peddling lies and fabrications that serve Israeli interests. The infamous story of the 40 beheaded babies, the alleged rapes by Hamas forces on October 7, and the fabricated story of a Palestinian rocket striking the Al-Ahli Arab hospital are just a few examples of the blatant misinformation spread by American and European outlets in the past 10 months. 

Western media of course, never feels the need to provide evidence for its claims. This is largely because they are rarely held responsible for their intentional falsehoods. Even when they eventually recognize or amend their inaccuracies, the damage is already done, as the lie has taken root in public belief.

This time around, it seems that Western media is trying to diminish public support for Iran’s retaliation against Israel. 

“When Iran conducted Operation True Promise after Israel attacked its embassy in Syria, different countries and their people supported the operation even though it was unprecedented in its kind. That’s because the world believed that Tehran had the legal right to respond to Israel’s aggression,” Mahdi Khanalizadeh, a West Asia analyst and former director of the Press TV Website, told the Tehran Times. 

Khanalizadeh noted that public opinion has once again aligned with Iran, supporting the belief that the country has the right to respond to the regime's terrorist attack targeting a Palestinian leader on Iranian soil. “When the New York Times and other media outlets suggest the incident was due to a security and intelligence failure rather than an attack, they are implicitly arguing that military action in response to Haniyeh's assassination would be unjustified. This serves to undermine the righteousness of Iran's retaliation against Israel.”

Western media could have a difficult time getting people on Israel’s side of the ledger, given the growing misgivings people hold about the accuracy of their reports after 10 months of blatant misinformation on Gaza.  But even if their latest propaganda campaign comes to fruition, it is unlikely to affect Iran’s will to punish Israel. 

“Iran and Resistance forces are going to avenge martyr Haniyeh’s blood no matter what,” Al-Qaddumi declared. “Even the international community needs to take action and join the Axis of Resistance because the Zionist regime has violated every international law out there and created chaos in every corner of the region.”