TEHRAN — A mob of approximately 200 rioters reportedly launched a coordinated assault on the residence of Palestinian Authority Ambassador Salam al-Zawawi on January 8 during the riots and terror attacks in some cities in Iran that day.

According to a report posted on the Asrian website, armed with Molotov cocktails and chanting inflammatory slogans, the attackers breached the residence during a period of intense street disturbance.

Ambassador al-Zawawi was reportedly rushed to the hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation and asphyxiation as the building was set ablaze.

Several embassy staff members also sustained injuries during the incursion, the report says.

As the mob moved to infiltrate the building, the ambassador, her family, and staff were forced to seek refuge in the basement, where they remained trapped until security forces arrived to neutralize the threat and evacuate the personnel.

According to the report, the building sustained extensive damage, and in the days following the siege, additional groups gathered to issue further threats, prompting the diplomatic police to establish permanent security barriers around the site.

Ambassador al-Zawawi, who assumed her post in early 2022 after her father Salah al-Zawawi’s four-decade tenure, represents a diplomatic lineage that the recent unrest—blamed by Iranian authorities on the U.S. and Israel—appears intended to unsettle.

This assault is a direct byproduct of what Tehran calls foreign-backed sedition and terror attacks that began in late December 2025.

While originating from peaceful protests by shopkeepers over economic pressures partly caused by unilateral U.S. sanctions, Iranian officials state the situation was hijacked by American and Israeli intelligence agencies.