Top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday confirmed that his three sons and four grandchildren were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. The grandchildren included three girls and a boy.
Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV said the car in which Haniyeh's sons were travelling was targeted in Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City when they were heading to a family gathering on Eid al-Fitr.
Haniyeh is originally from Al-Shati. His family home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023.
The Israeli Defence Forces stated that Haniyeh's sons were "Hamas military operatives who conducted terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip".
The IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA) identified the deceased as Amir Haniyeh, a cell commander in the Hamas military wing, besides low-ranking operatives Mohammad Haniyeh and Hazem Haniyeh. Haniyeh's surviving son, Abdel-Salam Haniyeh, who is the eldest, also confirmed the "martyrdom" of his brothers.
In a statement, Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, said the killing of his sons would not have impact on the negotiations. "Our demands are clear and specific and we will not make concessions on them. The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, at the climax of the negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position," Reuters quoted Haniyeh as saying.
