Three sons and three grandchildren of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the Hamas-affiliated news agency Shehab.
Haniyeh is a former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defence Forces has confirmed it has killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s three sons – claiming they were terrorists.
“Earlier today, [Israeli] air force aircraft attacked three military operatives of the terrorist organisation Hamas on their way to carry out terrorist activities in the central area of the Gaza Strip,” an IDF spokesperson said.
“The three activists who were attacked are Amir Haniyeh, a squad commander in the military arm of Hamas, Muhammad Haniyeh, a military operative in the terrorist organization and Hazem Haniyeh, another military operative in the terrorist organisation.
“The IDF confirms that the activists are three of the children of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas.”
And the Middle East Correspondent of Sky News, Alistair Bunkall, says the death of six members of Ismail Haniyeh’s family will not change Hamas’s belief that it is in the “driving seat” of ceasefire negotiations.
“The assumption is that this [reported attack on Haniyeh’s family] is designed to put pressure on Hamas to agree to a new hostage deal,” he says.
“What I’ve been hearing over the past 36 hours or so is that Hamas are inclined to reject a new ceasefire deal because, quite honestly, they think they are in the driving seat at the moment.”
Israel has removed nearly all of its troops from Gaza, so the military pressure has lessened significantly, Bunkall assessed, before adding that the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers means that there’s a lot more humanitarian aid going into Gaza as well – a further positive for Hamas.
“Haniyeh himself said… [if targeting his family] is a tactic that the Israelis are trying to use, it is delusional,” Bunkall said.
Reports from Sky News