Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran, the Palestinian militant group Hamas has said.

In a statement, the Islamist faction mourned the death of Haniyeh, who it said was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.

Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he had been targeted in his residence along with an Iranian bodyguard. It said he had been in Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. It said it was investigating the circumstances of the “incident”.

Haniyeh was the exiled political chief of the militant group and had spent much of his time in recent years in Qatar. During the Israel-Gaza war he had acted as a negotiator in the ceasefire talks and liased with Hamas’s main ally, Iran.

Israel has yet to comment on his killing.

Welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran, the militant group has confirmed in a statement.

Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he had been targeted in his residence along with an Iranian bodyguard. It said he had been in Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. It said it was investigating the circumstances of the “incident”.

Haniyeh was the exiled political chief of the militant group and had spent much of his time in recent years in Qatar.

Here is a summary of the latest developments.

• Israel says it has killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukur, in an airstrike on a south Beirut suburb launched in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children at the weekend. Shukur, also known as Hajj Mohsin, served as right hand man to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel’s military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said in a briefing on Tuesday night.

• US defence secretary Lloyd Austin does not believe that a fight between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable, and said Washington would like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion, Reuters reports. “While we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable,” Austin said. “We’d like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion.” Austin made the comments on Tuesday at a joint press conference in Manila.

• Israel’s military has charged a reservist with aggravated abuse of Palestinian prisoners, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, as nine other soldiers appeared in military court for an initial hearing over allegations they had sexually abused a detainee from Gaza. The other soldiers detained on Monday are accused of raping and attacking a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention centre so violently that he was taken to hospital in critical condition, Israeli media reported.

• Gaza official says 300 people were killed in Israel’s assault on Khan Younis. Thousands of Palestinians returned home on Tuesday after the assault came to an end. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Tuesday that the Israeli operation in and around the city killed about 300 people since it began last week.

• Two air defence bases in southern Syria have been struck by Israeli missiles, a war monitor has said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported no casualties in the overnight strikes in Daraa province, which abuts the armistice line separating Syrian and Israeli forces on the Golan.

• Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday called on Israel not to fall into the “trap” of retaliation, saying she was “very, very worried” by the situation in Lebanon and by the risk of a regional escalation. Speaking during an official visit to China, Meloni said the international community should continue sending messages of moderation, and that China could help in these efforts, having “solid ties” with Iran and Saudi Arabia.