At least ten relatives of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike, including his sister, according to Gaza officials.
The attack hit the Haniyeh family home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the civil defense agency.
Images show how the building was reduced to rubble, with rescuers working at the scene. The victims were extracted and taken to the local hospital, where white body bags were placed on the ground and distraught mourners were seen gathering.
The attack came just weeks after Haniyeh lost three children and four grandchildren in an Israeli airstrike on his car nearby.
Before his death, Haniyeh was believed to have had 13 sons and daughters. The Qatar-based Hamas leader said at the time that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.
The bodies of ten people, including the sister of Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh, are taken to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital following the Israeli attack on the Al Shati refugee camp.
A man stands in the rubble of Ismail Haniyeh’s sister’s house after it was leveled by Israeli shelling.
Ismail Haniyeh is the head of Hamas’s political bureau and is based in Qatar.
Earlier, Haniyeh seemed calm when told the news of the deaths of his three sons, Hazem, Mohammed and Amir, along with four of his children.
Gaza’s civil defense agency confirmed that today’s attack had killed ten relatives of the political bureau chief, including his sister Zahr Haniyeh.
He said there are likely still several bodies under the rubble, but “we don’t have the necessary equipment” to extract them.
Civil defense teams moved the bodies to Al-Ahli hospital in nearby Gaza City, Basal added, also reporting “several injuries” in the attack.
The Israeli military said it was “aware of the reports but we cannot confirm them.”
Previously, Haniyeh seemed calm when he was informed of the deaths of his three sons, Hazem, Mohammed and Amir, along with his children.
The family members were killed in an attack near the al-Shati refugee camp.
Israel claimed that Mohammed and Hazem were Hamas military agents, while Amir was the commander of a cell.
His father, 61, later confirmed the news to Al Jazeera, telling the broadcaster: “I am grateful to God for the honor he has given me for the death of three of my children and some of my grandchildren.”
The men search through the rubble of the house, and rescuers said they lacked the equipment to recover all the victims.
The attack is said to have hit the Haniyeh family home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Distraught relatives of the deceased look at the body bags of airstrike victims
The bodies of ten people, including the sister of Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh, are taken to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital.
‘My children received this honor. They stayed with our Palestinian people in Gaza, they did not leave or flee,” he said, adding: “The blood of my children is not dearer than the blood of our people.”
The terrorist leader attacked Israel, claiming that they were “driven by the spirit of revenge” and claimed that around 60 members of his family had been killed since the start of the war.
Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s ferocious air, land and sea campaign has since killed at least 37,626 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.