Three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, they struck Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad Haniyeh in the Shati Camp in northern Gaza while they were en route to carry out terror activity. Amir was a high-ranking Hamas commander, while Hazem and Mohammad were lower-ranking operatives in the terror organization. One of Haniyeh’s sons was reportedly involved in holding Israeli hostages taken on October 7.
Al Jazeera reports that several of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the incident.
“If they [Israel] think that targeting my children at the peak of these talks before the movement’s [Hamas’s] response is submitted will cause Hamas to change its positions, they are delusional,” Haniyeh told Al Jazeera in a phone interview, confirming the deaths of his family members.
“The blood of my children is not more valuable than the blood of the children of the Palestinian people. All the martyrs of Palestine are my children,” he said.
“Their pure blood is for the liberation of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and we will continue to march on our road and will not hesitate and will not falter,” Haniyeh continued. “With their blood, we bring about hope, a future and freedom for our people and our cause.”
Kan New reports that the strike on Haniyeh’s three sons was authorized independently by a colonel in the IDF’s Southern Command and was not discussed beforehand by the war cabinet.
