DEATH OF SONS WILL NOT SWAY TALKS, MILITANT LEADER SAYS
Air strike comes amid ceasefire negotiations as Hamas reveals none of its demands have been met
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the death of three of his sons in an Israeli air strike would not influence truce talks in Gaza.
The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the attack on Wednesday, which came as Israel was holding ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Israel described the three as operatives in the Hamas armed wing.
The sons – Hazem, Amir and Mohammad – were killed when the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp, Hamas said. Four of Haniyeh’s grandchildren, three girls and a boy, were also killed in the attack, Hamas said.
Asked about the four grandchildren killed in the air strike, the
Israeli military said there was “no information on that right now”.
Haniyeh, based in Qatar, has been the tough-talking face of Hamas’ international diplomacy as war has raged in Gaza, where his family home was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in November.
“The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people,” Haniyeh, 61, who has 13 sons and daughters according to Hamas sources, told Al Jazeera TV.
The three sons and grandchildren were making family visits during the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday in Shati, their home refugee camp in Gaza City, according to relatives.
The deadly strike came as talks in Cairo for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal drag on without signs of a breakthrough. Talks mediated by the United
States, Egypt and Qatar have been ongoing since Sunday.
Hamas said on Tuesday it was studying an Israeli ceasefire proposal but that it was “intransigent” and met none of the Palestinian demands.
Haniyeh said: “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.”
Hamas wants an end to Israeli military operations and a withdrawal from the enclave, and permission for displaced Palestinians to return home.
A framework being circulated would halt fighting for six weeks and see the exchange of about 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
US President Joe Biden said Hamas “needs to move” on the latest truce proposal.
Israel’s main ally the United States has also been ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a truce, increase the amount of aid flowing into the besieged Gaza Strip and abandon plans to invade the southern city of Rafah.
Appointed to the militant group’s top job in 2017, Haniyeh has moved between Turkey and Qatar’s capital Doha, avoiding Israeli-imposed travel restrictions in blockaded Gaza and enabling him to act as a negotiator in ceasefire negotiations or communicate with Hamas’ main ally, Iran.
Israel regards the entire Hamas leadership as terrorists, accusing Haniyeh and other leaders of continuing to “pull the strings of the Hamas terror organisation”.
But how much Haniyeh knew about the October 7 cross-border attack on Israel by Gaza-based militants beforehand is not clear.
The attack plan, drawn up by the Hamas military council in Gaza, was such a closely guarded secret that some Hamas officials abroad seemed shocked by its timing and scale.