The bomb that killed top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was planted in his guesthouse in Iran two months in advance, according to several reports.
Haniyeh was assassinated after attending the inauguration of the new Iranian president in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday. Initially thought to be an airstrike, Haniyeh was actually killed in an explosion set off by a bomb that had been planted by assassins two months earlier in a Tehran guesthouse where he had been residing, according to five Middle Eastern officials who spoke to The New York Times.
The bomb was detonated remotely once Haniyeh reached his room in the guesthouse, according to the Times. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Axios that Mossad, Israel’s top intelligence agency, planted and detonated the bomb.
Israel has not taken credit for Haniyeh’s assassination, nor has the U.S. publicly identified who it believes was behind the operation. Israel has taken responsibility for some of its military actions in the past — such as the strike against a high-level Hezbollah operative in Lebanon on Monday — but Mossad’s operations have often been shrouded in mystery and met with silence from the Israeli government.
It is unclear how the assassins were able to plant the bomb to begin with, according to the Times. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iran’s military, was tasked with running and providing security for the guesthouse, which is located in an upper-class neighborhood of Tehran.
The assassins managed to bypass IRGC security and plant the bomb in a hidden location, according to the Times. That IRGC officials failed to catch the assassin or detect the bomb in the months that it was hidden represents a massive security and intelligence failure, as well as a stain on the IRGC’s reputation, two Iranian officials told the Times.
When the bomb exploded around 2 a.m. local time, the guesthouse shook and partially collapsed, according to the Times. Officials and medical personnel scrambled to Haniyeh’s room to find that he had died immediately, as did his bodyguard, who was also in the room at the time.
Haniyeh’s death is a major blow to Hamas, given his high-level status as the terrorist organization’s political leader. Iran and Hamas declared Israel was responsible immediately following the news of Haniyeh’s death and have vowed revenge; Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly gave the order to strike directly inside of Israel out of retaliation, although the scale or timing of such a strike is unknown, according to the Times.
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White House border czar Tom Homan predicted Sunday the Trump administration will deport the majority of Third World migrants due to vetting challenges.
Two National Guardsmen were shot Wednesday, allegedly by an Afghan national brought into the U.S. under the Biden administration. The attack prompted President Donald Trump to announce in a Thursday post on Truth Social that his administration would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” Homan said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that Third World nations could not be relied upon to provide accurate information for vetting migrants.
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“[T]hese Third World nations, they don’t have systems like we do. So, a lot of these Afghanistans, when they did get here and get vetted, they had no identification at all. Not a single travel document, not one piece of identification,” Homan said. “And we’re going to count on the people that run Afghanistan, the Taliban, to provide us any information [on] who the bad guys were or who the good guys are? Certainly not. And many people need to understand that most terrorists in this world, most of ’em, aren’t in any database.”
“And the same thing with illegal aliens, the over 10 million that came across the border under Joe Biden. There’s no way to vet these people. You think El Salvador or Turkey or Sudan or any of these countries have the databases or system checks that we have?” he added. “Do you think the government[s] of China, Russia, Turkey, do you think they’re going to share that data with us even if they did have it? There’s no way to clearly vet these people 100% that they’re safe to come to this country from these Third World nations.”
The president also wrote in his Thursday post he would “terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions,” along with deporting those who do not offer value to the United States. Homan said Trump is correct to evaluate all migrants who entered under Biden.
“I really, truly think that most of ’em are [going to] end up being deported ’cause we’re not going to be able to properly vet them,” he said.
Similarly, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asserted Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” the Trump administration would deport individuals with pending asylum claims.
West Virginia Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, perished Thursday from wounds sustained in Wednesday’s shooting. The other victim, Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition at the time of publication.
The shooting was allegedly carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the country in September 2021 after the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lakanwal previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, and was admitted into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, which resettled Afghans who had helped American forces.
Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024, which the Trump administration granted in April 2025, according to Reuters. The alleged gunman shouted, “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire with a revolver, independent journalist Julio Rojas reported.
As of December 2024, over 180,000 Afghans were resettled in the U.S. following its August 2021 withdrawal, according to the State Department. After the shooting, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the “processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals” would be paused “indefinitely.”
USCIS also asserted Thursday it would conduct a full-scale reexamination of all green cards granted to individuals from 19 countries “of concern” at Trump’s direction. The agency added in a later statement that, when vetting migrants from those nations, it would weigh “negative, country specific factors,” such as whether the country was able to “issue secure identity documents.”
President Donald Trump said Thursday he will pause migration from some countries following the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House.
The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 under a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans fleeing the Taliban movement. He was reportedly granted asylum this year.
U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from injuries she sustained in the Wednesday shooting, Trump told service members in a video call Thursday night. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was in critical condition. Lakanwal was also injured in the shooting.
The two victims were members of the West Virginia National Guard sent to Washington, D.C. in August under Trump’s orders for a crackdown on crime.
In a lengthy social media post on Thursday, Trump claimed “reverse migration” is the answer to years of mass migration and said he plans to “permanently pause migration from all third world countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
Trump also appeared to consider removing migrants who have become U.S. citizens. He said he will “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is capable of loving our Country.”
He said the federal government will end all “benefits and subsidies to noncitizens, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport and foreign nation who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
The FBI said they are conducting investigations in Washington State, the suspect’s last known residence, as well as connections he may have had in San Diego.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has executed “multiple search warrants around the country.”
Patel said Lakanwal had a “relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces.” Multiple reports claim Lakanwal worked alongside the Central Intelligence Agency while in Afghanistan.
