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[Text/Guacha.net Liu Chenghui] Was it a long-range airstrike or a close-range attack? More than two days have passed since the assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh, and the method of assassination remains a mystery. A US media report on August 1 gave a new explanation - Haniyeh was killed by a remote-controlled bomb that was placed in his residence two months in advance.

The New York Times said that according to a description by a U.S. official and seven Middle Eastern officials, Haniyeh was assassinated on the 31st by an explosive device secretly transported to the hotel where he was staying. Five Middle Eastern officials said that the bomb was hidden in the residence about two months ago, and once Haniyeh was confirmed to be in the room, the bomb was remotely detonated. The incident also killed one of Haniyeh's bodyguards.

Although Iranian media previously quoted witnesses as saying that a missile-like object hit Haniya's room and then exploded, two Iranian guards said the explosion occurred in Haniya's room and preliminary investigations showed that the bomb was placed there in advance.

CNN gave the same statement. The report quoted a source familiar with the operation as saying that the bomb was hidden in the hotel where Haniyeh lived in Tehran about two months ago and was remotely detonated after he entered the room. The source also said that Israeli officials informed American officials of the operation only after the assassination.

Iranian and Middle Eastern officials said the explosion occurred at around 2 a.m. local time on the 31st. The staff in the building were startled and ran to find the source of the loud noise, and finally found the room where Haniya and the bodyguard lived. A medical team rushed to the scene immediately after the explosion, but announced that Haniya had died on the spot, and the bodyguard died after unsuccessful rescue.

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials familiar with the incident recalled that the explosion shook the entire building, window glass flew everywhere and part of the outer wall collapsed.

Five Middle Eastern officials said that Ziad Nahala, secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Jihad), who lived in the same building as Haniyeh, rushed to the scene and saw Haniyeh's body. Two other Iranian officials said that Nahala lived near Haniyeh, but his room was not seriously damaged, indicating that the explosion was a precision strike specifically targeting Haniyeh.

Three Iranian officials said that after the explosion, someone immediately notified the commander-in-chief of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Ghani. Upon learning the news, Ghani urgently contacted Iran's supreme leader Khamenei in the middle of the night, even waking him up from his sleep to report the emergency.

Four hours after the incident, Iran's Revolutionary Guard announced the killing of Haniyeh.

Middle Eastern officials said the assassination apparently took months to plan and would have required the attackers to keep the building under close surveillance.

The report said that the residence where Haniyeh was assassinated was located in an upscale community in northern Tehran and was operated and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Middle Eastern officials said that Haniyeh had stayed here many times when he visited Tehran in the past.

The New York Times reported earlier that an anonymous Iranian official confirmed to the media that the damaged building in a photo circulating on the Internet was the site of the attack in Haniya. A corner of the building in the photo appeared to be severely damaged and covered by multiple green waterproof curtains, and rubble could be seen on the top platform of the first floor. The New York Times matched the photo with satellite images and confirmed that the building was near the Saade Abad Palace in northern Tehran. Many of Iran's foreign affairs activities are held in the Saade Abad Palace.

As for how the attackers hid the bomb in the building months in advance, two Iranian officials said they did not know. They described the precision and complexity of the attack as tactically reminiscent of Israel's assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020. It is said that Israeli agents used remote-controlled robots to launch the attack.

Within hours of Haniya's death, there was speculation that Israel had launched a missile attack using drones or fighter jets. But this claim quickly raised questions about how Israel could once again evade Iran's air defense system and blatantly launch an air strike on key areas of the Iranian capital.

The Israeli website i24NEWS reported on July 31 that the attack took place at around 2 a.m. that day, when an Israeli-made Spike anti-tank missile was fired from near Haniyeh's residence and hit the bedroom where he was. The report quoted Iranian media as saying that Haniyeh's bodyguard leaked key information that led to his attack.

The New York Times said that it turned out that another loophole in Iran's defense system was exploited: a heavily guarded compound allowed attackers to plant a bomb and hide it for weeks before finally detonating it.

Three Iranian officials admitted that for Iran, the killing of Haniyeh was a "catastrophic failure" in intelligence and security, and it also put the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps into a great embarrassment - because the site of the attack was exactly where the Revolutionary Guard Corps held secret meetings and received dignitaries like Haniyeh.

Although Hamas, Iran and other parties have accused Israel of being behind the attack, Israel has not yet made an official response.

The New York Times quoted three Iranian officials familiar with the matter on the 31st as saying that Khamenei had ordered a direct attack on Israel in retaliation. Three anonymous Iranian officials, including two members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Khamenei issued the order at an emergency meeting on the morning of the 31st.

However, US media said it is unclear how strong Iran's response will be, nor whether Iran will make adjustments again to avoid escalation of the situation.

"(The attack on Haniya) is a major escalation," said Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East studies at Georgetown University in the United States. "I think this will also affect events in Lebanon, where people currently believe that Iran and Hezbollah are not interested in escalating the situation."

But the assassination of Haniyeh has upended those predictions, he said, and "Iran now has every incentive to try to escalate the conflict."

On August 1, local time, the Israeli Army Radio stated that according to informed sources, due to the death of Haniyeh in the attack, Hamas has indefinitely frozen the ceasefire and personnel exchange agreement negotiations.

Several analysts told Al Jazeera that the incident in Haniya could draw the region into a wider conflict and undermine the prospects of reaching a ceasefire agreement to end the Gaza conflict.

Some critics and experts believe that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu frequently disrupts ceasefire negotiations because he does not want to end the war. He is worried that the end of the war will lead to the collapse of the far-right coalition government he leads and trigger early elections.

But in the view of Myrav Zonzein, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the International Crisis Group, Netanyahu may try to tout Haniyeh's assassination as a "victory" for Israel to make it more politically feasible for him to agree to a ceasefire.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.