CAIRO: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s three sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday (April 10), the Palestinian militant group and Haniyeh’s family said.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack and described the three sons as members of Hamas’ armed wing.
His three sons – Hazem, Amir and Mohammad – were killed when the car they were driving was bombed in the Al-Shati camp in Gaza, Hamas said. Haniyeh’s four grandchildren, three girls and one boy, were also killed in the attack, Hamas said.
When asked about his four grandchildren who were killed in the airstrike, the Israeli military said there was “no information about that at this time.”
Haniyeh, who is based abroad in Qatar, has become a tough figure in Hamas’ international diplomacy as war with Israel rages on in Gaza, where his family’s home was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in November.
“My son’s blood is no more valuable than the blood of our people,” Haniyeh, 61, who has 13 sons and daughters according to Hamas sources, told pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV.
The three sons and four grandchildren paid a family visit on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Shati, their home refugee camp in Gaza City, according to their relatives.
Hamas said on Tuesday that it was studying Israel’s ceasefire proposal in the more than six-month-old Gaza war, but it was “stubborn” and did not meet any of the Palestinian demands.
“Our demands are clear and specific and we will make no concessions to them. Enemies would be delusional if they thought that targeting my children, at the climax of negotiations and before the movement had submitted its response, would encourage Hamas to change its position. ,” said Haniyeh.
In the seventh month of a war in which Israeli air and ground attacks have devastated Gaza, Hamas wants an end to Israeli military operations, withdrawal from the enclave, and permission for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
Haniyeh’s eldest son confirmed in a Facebook post that his three brothers were killed. “Thanks to God who honors us for the martyrdom of my brothers, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad and their children,” wrote Abdel-Salam Haniyeh.
Appointed leader of the militant group in 2017, Haniyeh has shuttled between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, evading Israeli-imposed travel restrictions on blockaded Gaza and allowing him to act as a negotiator in recent ceasefire negotiations or communicate with allies. main Hamas, Iran. .
Israel considers the entire Hamas leadership to be terrorists, accusing Haniyeh and other leaders of continuing to “pull the strings of the Hamas terror organization.”
But how much Haniyeh knew about the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel carried out by Gaza-based militants in advance remains unclear.
The plans for the attack, drawn up by the Hamas military council in Gaza, were such a closely guarded secret that some Hamas officials abroad appeared shocked by the timing and scale of the attack.
