Three children and “several” grandchildren of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, relatives and official Hamas media said today.
Reports claim that Hazem, Ameer and Mohammed Haniyeh were killed along with their family members in a fatal attack near the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.
Hamas’ political chief confirmed the deaths to Al Jazeera.
“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,” said Haniyeh, from Qatar.
‘My children received this honor. They remained with our Palestinian people in Gaza, they did not leave or flee,” he added.
Three sons of Hamas supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said that “some” of his grandchildren were also killed, joining dozens of his relatives who he claims have died inside Gaza.
The terrorist chief said: “Through the blood of the martyrs and the pain of the wounded, we create hope, we create the future, we create independence and freedom for our people and our nation,” the terrorist chief said.
Ismail Haniyeh, who now lives in exile in Qatar, is originally from Shati.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The deaths were confirmed by Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station, as well as by members of the Haniyeh family on social media.
It comes after the head of Hamas said last Wednesday that his Palestinian Islamist movement at war with Israel was sticking to its conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, including an Israeli military withdrawal.
Israeli officials visited Egypt early last week in an attempt to reach a deal, but a Palestinian official close to the mediation proceedings said there were no signs of progress being made.
“We are committed to our demands: the permanent ceasefire, the broad and complete withdrawal of the enemy from the Gaza Strip, the return of all displaced people to their homes, allowing all necessary aid for our people in Gaza, rebuilding the Strip , lift the blockade and achieve an honorable prisoner exchange agreement,” Haniyeh said in a televised speech on the occasion of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day.
The ‘swap deal’ the supreme leader mentioned would be the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages held by militants in Gaza since the deadly October 7 massacre at the Supernova music festival in Israel, led by Hamas.
Israel responded by saying it was only interested in a temporary truce to free the hostages, but Hamas said it would only let them go as part of a deal to permanently end the war.
US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza a mistake and called on his government to flood the besieged territory with aid, increasing pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire and widening a gap between staunch allies.
Palestinians in Gaza celebrated a quiet Eid al-Fitr holiday that ended the holy fasting month of Ramadan, visiting the graves of loved ones killed in the war.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, people sat quietly next to graves surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israel’s offensive in response to the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
Biden has been an outspoken supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas. But in recent weeks his patience with Netanyahu appeared to wane and his administration has taken a tougher line with Israel, shaking the countries’ decades-long alliance and deepening Israel’s international isolation over the war.
The most serious disagreement has been over Israel’s plans for an offensive on the city of Rafah, on the southern edge of Gaza.
The dispute was exacerbated by an Israeli airstrike last week on an aid convoy that killed seven workers at the World Central Kitchen charity, most of them foreigners. Israel said the deaths were unintentional, but Biden was outraged.
Biden’s latest comments, made in an interview broadcast Tuesday night and recorded two days after the WCK attack, highlight differences between Israel and the United States over humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, where the war has prompted warnings of imminent famine for more than a million people.
‘What you are doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden told Spanish-language broadcaster Univision when asked if Netanyahu was prioritizing his political survival over Israel’s interests.
Biden said Israel should agree to a ceasefire, flood besieged Gaza with aid over the next six to eight weeks and allow other countries in the region to help distribute the aid. “It should be done now,” he said.
Israel stopped aid deliveries to Gaza in the early days of the war, but under pressure from the United States it has slowly increased the number of trucks allowed into the territory.
Still, aid groups say supplies are not reaching desperate people quickly enough, blaming Israeli restrictions and noting that thousands of trucks are waiting to enter Gaza.
Countries have tried less efficient ways of delivering aid, including airdrops and sea drops.
Israel says it has opened more entry points for trucks to enter and reach especially hard-hit areas such as northern Gaza, one of Israel’s first targets in the war.
Israel also accuses aid groups of being too slow to deliver aid once inside Gaza.
Aid groups say logistical problems and the precarious security situation, highlighted by the WCK strike, are complicating deliveries.
Israel and Hamas are holding talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages captured by Hamas and others on October 7. But the sides remain far apart on key issues, including the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza. . Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet met Tuesday night to discuss hostage negotiations but did not appear to make any decisions.
Netanyahu has vowed to achieve “total victory” in the war, pledging to destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attacks and return the hostages. He says victory must include an offensive on Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’s last major stronghold, but more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people currently seek refuge there.
Six months into the war, Israel is increasingly isolated, even its closest partner is increasingly expressing discontent with the direction of the war, and long-standing trading partners like Turkey are taking potentially painful economic steps to express their dismay.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, is under pressure to decide on a post-war vision for Gaza. But critics say he is delaying because he does not want to anger his ultra-nationalist ruling partners, who support resettlement from the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew in 2005 and an idea Netanyahu has dismissed.
Netanyahu’s ruling partners also oppose making significant concessions to Hamas in the ongoing negotiations. They have threatened to leave the government, a move that would cause the ruling coalition to collapse and trigger new elections.
“If the prime minister thinks there is going to be a reckless deal here, it will not be approved,” Limor Sonn Har Melech, a lawmaker from the hardline Jewish Power party, said in an interview with an Israeli radio station. . “If we realize that the meaning of stopping this war is capitulation to Hamas, we won’t be there.”
Israel launched the war in response to the Hamas cross-border attack, where militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
More than 33,400 Palestinians have been killed in the relentless fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead are women and children. Israel says it has killed some 12,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Most of the territory’s population has been displaced and with vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape devastated by fighting, many areas are uninhabitable.