GAZA – Multiple sources have confirmed that an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday targeted and killed three sons of Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, in an airstrike on a car in Gaza on Wednesday.
Haniyeh himself has confirmed three of his granddaughters and a grandson were also killed in the attack.
“Earlier today, directed by IDF and ISA intelligence, IAF (Israeli Air Force) aircraft struck three Hamas military operatives that conducted terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“The three operatives that were struck are Amir Haniyeh, a cell commander in the Hamas military wing, Mohammad Haniyeh, a military operative in the Hamas terrorist organization, and Hazem Haniyeh, also a military operative in the Hamas terror organization,” the statement said.
The IDF went on to confirm that the three operatives are Haniyeh’s sons.
Independent reports say four of the Hamas leader’s grandchildren were also killed, along with the driver of the car the family was travelling in.
The assassination, which would have required the sign-off of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came as hostage negotiations between Hamas and Israel have reached a sensitive stage.
The strike took place near Al Shati, northwest of Gaza City.
In October an Israeli airstrike killed fourteen other members of Haniyeh’s family, including his brother and nephew. His granddaughter Roaa Haniyeh was also reportedly killed by the IDF, as was his oldest grandson, Jamal, the Jerusalem Post reported. In February, Palestinian sources said another of Haniyeh’s sons, 22-year-old Hazim, had also been killed.
“All of Gaza’s citizens paid a price with the blood of their children, including me,” he said.
Last week the Hamas leader’s sister, Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, was taken into custody by Israeli police in the town of Tel el-Sabe in the southern part of the the Palestinian territories.
Meantime, the Palestinian death toll since October 7th, last year, rose to 33,482 Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Health Authority. At least 76,049 others have been injured.
At least 122 people were killed and fifty-six others injured in the past 24 hours, officials added.
