TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Three sons of Hamas’ top political leader were killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, with the leader saying Israel was acting in a “spirit of revenge and murder.” he accused.
Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the most high-profile killed in the war to date. Haniya said Hamas would not bow to pressure, but it was not immediately clear how their deaths would affect months-long ceasefire negotiations being brokered by international mediators.
Israeli Defense Minister says Hamas has ‘stopped functioning as a military organization’
The Israeli military said the men had carried out extremist activities in central Gaza, but did not provide details.
A man reacts next to the body of a boy killed in Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Haniyeh confirmed the deaths in an interview with Al Jazeera satellite broadcaster, saying his sons were “martyred on the way to liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
“Criminal enemies are driven by a spirit of revenge and murder and do not value any standards or laws,” he said in a telephone interview.
The Israeli military described the three brothers as cell commanders and two military operatives.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Haniyeh said the killings would not put pressure on Hamas to soften its position.
“The enemy believes that by targeting the families of leaders, they can be induced to abandon the demands of the people,” he said. “Those who believe that targeting my sons will encourage Hamas to change their position are delusional.”
Haniya is in exile in Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based. Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television station aired footage of Haniyeh receiving the news of his death while visiting an injured Palestinian who was taken to a hospital in Doha. When her aide received the news on her cell phone, Haniya nodded, looked down at the ground, and slowly walked out of the room.
“There is no strength or strength except in God,” Haniya murmured. “May God make things easy for them.”
Al-Aqsa TV said Hazem, Ameer and Mohamed Haniya were killed along with their families in a strike near Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Ismail Haniya is from Shati.
Al-Aqsa TV reported that the brothers were traveling in a car with their families when they were targeted by Israeli drones, killing six people, including Hazem Haniya’s daughter and Amer’s son and daughter. He added that he did.
Earlier, Israel’s war minister Benny Gantz claimed Hamas had been defeated militarily, but also said Israel would fight Hamas for years to come.
“From a military perspective, Hamas has been defeated. Its fighters have been eliminated or are in hiding,” Gantz said in a statement to the media in Sderot, calling its capabilities “dysfunctional.” Stated.
However, he added, “The fight against Hamas will take time. The boys, who are now in middle school, will continue to fight in the Gaza Strip.”
Gantz reiterated the Israeli government’s commitment to access Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. Rafah is currently home to more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people. “Wherever the target of terrorism is, the Israel Defense Forces will be there,” he said, referring to the Israeli military.
The strike comes as Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the quiet holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan, by visiting the graves of loved ones killed in the war. In the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, people sat silently next to a grave surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in response to the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
US President Joe Biden has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mishandling the war in Gaza and called on his government to flood the besieged region with aid.
After months of supporting a war with Hamas, the White House ramped up pressure on Israel for a ceasefire, a hard line that has undermined the two countries’ decades-long alliance and deepened Israel’s international isolation over the war. I took a stance.
The most serious disagreement is over Israel’s plan to attack Rafah. The rift worsened last week when Israel launched an airstrike on a aid convoy, killing seven workers, most of them foreigners, of the charity organization World Central Kitchen. Israel insisted the death was unintentional, but Biden was furious.
Biden’s latest comments, in an interview recorded two days after the World Central Kitchen strike and aired late Tuesday, highlight differences between Israel and the United States over humanitarian aid to people in the Gaza Strip. . Million people.
Asked whether Netanyahu was putting his own political survival ahead of Israel’s national interests, Biden said: “What he’s doing is wrong. I don’t agree with his approach.” Ta.
Israel stopped sending aid to Gaza early in the war, but under pressure from the United States it has gradually increased the number of trucks allowed into the strip.
Still, aid groups say supplies are not reaching desperate people quickly enough, blaming Israeli restrictions and pointing out that thousands of trucks are waiting to enter Gaza. Countries have tried less efficient methods, such as airdrops and delivering aid by sea.
Israel says the trucks have entered particularly hard-hit areas like northern Gaza, an early target of the war, opening more entry points to reach them. Israel also accuses aid groups of moving aid too slowly after entering the Gaza Strip.
Aid groups say distribution is complicated by logistical issues and a volatile security situation highlighted by strikes against aid workers.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to achieve “complete victory” and to destroy Hamas’ military and governance capabilities to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attack, and to return hostages taken by Hamas and others that day. He says victory must include an attack on Rafa.
Six months into the war, Israel has become increasingly isolated, with even its closest partners increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with the direction of the war, and long-time trading partners like Turkey also expressing disappointment. are taking potentially painful economic measures.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, is under pressure to decide on a post-war vision for Gaza. But critics say Netanyahu is holding off because he does not want to anger his ultranationalist governing partners, who support resettlement in the Gaza Strip, which Israel withdrew from in 2005. ing. Prime Minister Netanyahu has rejected his idea.
His government partners also oppose making major concessions to Hamas and have threatened to leave the government, which could cause the ruling coalition to collapse and trigger new elections.
Israel launched the war in response to a Hamas cross-border raid in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
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More than 33,400 Palestinians have been killed in the relentless fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not count civilians and fighters separately, but says most of the dead are women and children. . Israel said, without providing evidence, that it had killed about 12,000 militants.
The war caused a humanitarian catastrophe. A large part of the Gaza Strip’s population has been forced to flee, and large swathes of Gaza’s urban landscape have been destroyed by fighting, leaving many areas uninhabitable.
