The official who shared the image spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The photo, which is circulating on Telegram channels affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, shows a six-story structure in the upscale, leafy neighborhood of Zafaranieh in northern Tehran. The building is adjacent to the Saadabad Palace, which is used for government ceremonies. Its location is consistent with early reports of an explosion in northern Tehran, and The Times matched the building visible in the photo with satellite imagery of the site, confirming it is a building at the northern edge of Tehran.

One corner of the building appears to have sustained damage and is covered with a green cloth. Rubble can be seen on the roof of the first floor.

Just six days ago, another image of the same building, taken by the satellite company Maxar Technologies on July 25, shows no visible damage and no green tarp. That suggested that the image showing damage was taken more recently. It was not clear exactly when the tarp was placed on the building.

Image

“The assassination of Ismail and Rami, while they were documenting the crimes of Israeli forces, underscores the urgent need for immediate legal action against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity,” Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement.

Mohammed Moawad, Al Jazeera’s managing editor, praised Mr. al-Ghoul’s courage in a post on social media.

“Ismail was renowned for his professionalism and dedication, bringing the world’s attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza,” he said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has said the war in Gaza has led to the deadliest period for correspondents since it began gathering data in 1992, with at least 111 journalists and media workers among the more than 39,000 people killed in Gaza.

Mr. Moawad posted a message that he said had been written by Mr. al-Ghoul, in which the journalist reflected on being haunted by the incessant civilian suffering and death he’d seen while reporting on the conflict in Gaza.

“Let me tell you, my friend, that I no longer know the taste of sleep,” Mr. al-Ghoul wrote. “The bodies of children and the screams of the injured and their blood-soaked images never leave my sight. The cries of mothers and the wailing of men who are missing their loved ones never fade from my hearing.”

He added: “I am tired, my friend.”

Image

An Al Jazeera video from outside a hospital showed two corpses on stretchers wearing vests meant to protect journalists, marked with the word “press.” The journalists were on their way to a hospital after being asked to leave the area by Israeli forces, according to Al Jazeera.

Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement on social media that the organization was “dismayed” by the journalists’ deaths.

“Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted,” she said. “Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Israel has a fraught relationship with Al Jazeera. In May, the Israeli government shut down the organization’s local operations in a step that critics denounced as anti-democratic and part of a broader crackdown on dissent over the war against Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Al Jazeera, a major source of news in the Arab world that has often highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza, of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers, though Israeli officials offered no examples. The initial order to shut down, set for 45 days, has since been extended.

The New York Times and other major international outlets have evacuated Palestinian journalists who had been working for them in Gaza. Israel and Egypt have restricted entry by international journalists into Gaza — with the exception of coordinated visits to specific sites with the Israeli military — so the stories that emerge from the war have often been left to local Palestinian reporters to document alone, working in extremely dangerous conditions.

“It is clear that journalists need to be protected,” Stéphane Dujarric, a United Nations spokesman, told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday. “These and other similar incidents must be fully and transparently investigated, and there must be accountability.”

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of the assassination; Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has neither acknowledged nor denied killing Mr. Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Israel has a long history of killing enemies abroad, including Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders.

Through almost 10 months of war in Gaza, Iran has tried to strike a balance, putting pressure on Israel with sharply increased attacks by its allies and proxy forces in the region, while avoiding an all-out war between the two nations.

In April, Iran made its biggest and most overt attack on Israel in decades of hostility, launching hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its embassy compound that killed several Iranian military commanders in Damascus, Syria. But even that show of force was telegraphed well in advance, nearly all the weapons were shot down by Israel and its allies, and little damage was done.

Image

Now it is unclear how forcefully Iran will respond, and whether it will once again calibrate its attack to steer clear of escalation. Iranian military commanders are considering another combination attack of drones and missiles on military targets in the vicinity of Tel Aviv and Haifa, but would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets, the Iranian officials said. One option under consideration is a coordinated attack from Iran and other fronts where it has allied forces, including Yemen, Syria and Iraq, for maximum effect, they said.

Mr. Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defense in the event that the war expands and Israel or the United States strike Iran, the officials said.

In his public statement about Mr. Haniyeh’s death, Mr. Khamenei signaled that Iran would retaliate directly, saying, “we see avenging his blood our duty,” because it happened on the territory of the Islamic Republic. He said Israel had set the stage for receiving “a severe punishment.”

Statements from other Iranian officials, including the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the foreign ministry, the Guards and Iran’s mission to the U.N., also said openly that Iran would retaliate against Israel and that it had a right to defend itself against a transgression on its sovereignty.

Iran and the regional forces it backs — Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and multiple militias in Iraq — form what they call the “axis of resistance.” Leaders of those groups were in Tehran for the inauguration of Mr. Pezeshkian on Tuesday. Mr. Haniyeh was assassinated at about 2 a.m. local time, after attending the ceremony and meeting with Mr. Khamenei.

Image

The killing shocked Iranian officials, who described it as crossing red lines.

It was a humiliating security breach for a country eager to project strength but long frustrated by its inability to prevent Israel from carrying out covert operations on its soil. The embarrassment was compounded by Mr. Haniyeh’s prominence, the presence of other allies, and that he was attacked at a highly secure Revolutionary Guards guesthouse on a day of heightened security in the capital.

Many Iranian supporters of the government and officials expressed outrage at the failure to thwart the assassination, saying only a handful of senior security officials would have known where Mr. Haniyeh was staying. Some took to social media to say that Iran’s first priority should be to clean house and ensure the safety of its senior officials.

“Before revenge first ensure the safety of the supreme leader,” said Alireza Katebi Jahromi, a journalist and supporter of Iran’s government, in a post on X.

Iranian officials don’t view Mr. Haniyeh’s assassination as just Israel’s opportunistic killing of one of its foes, but also as an affront to their security apparatus that suggests anyone in Iran, at any level, could be targeted and killed.

Analysts said that Iran sees retaliation as necessary for both avenging the killing of Mr. Haniyeh but also deterrence against Israel killing other powerful enemies, like Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, or Gen. Ismail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Forces who oversees the militant groups outside Iran.

“Iran likely believes it has no choice other than retaliating to deter further Israeli attacks, defend its sovereignty, and preserve its credibility in the eyes of its regional partners,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group.