Israel confirmed the killings, calling the sons “Hamas agents.”
Palestinian territories:
An Israeli attack on Wednesday killed three of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s sons in Gaza, Palestinian leaders and the Israeli military said, as fighting continues in the Palestinian territories despite ongoing ceasefire talks. Raging.
Hamas said in a statement that Haniyeh’s three sons and four grandchildren were killed in the airstrike.
Israel confirmed the killings, saying the sons were “Hamas agents” “on their way to carry out terrorist acts.”
The attack comes as talks in Cairo aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release agreement have dragged on with no sign of a breakthrough.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Qatar-based Haniyeh said the attack was an attempt to change Hamas’ negotiating position but insisted it would not work.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said Hamas “needs to take action” on the latest truce proposal, which the militant group has said it is considering.
The United States has also been increasing pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire, increase the amount of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and abandon plans to invade the southern city of Rafah.
Biden called Israel’s conduct of the war a “mistake” in an interview aired on Tuesday, then warned on Wednesday that Israel would not allow enough aid to enter the territory.
As Israeli forces continue combat operations and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, Muslims gather to pray amid the devastation of six months of war to mark the first day of Eid al-Fitr, ending the fasting month of Ramadan.
The war broke out when Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also took about 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, and 34 of whom the Israeli army said were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,482 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
– ‘Disproportional response’ –
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said militarily “Hamas has been defeated” but insisted Israeli troops would still enter Rafah and return to Khan Younis, which they withdrew days earlier.
He added that the military would have to fight “on the front lines in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon” in the coming years.
More than 1.5 million civilians have fled the fighting in Rafah, the last Gaza city not yet facing an Israeli ground invasion.
The United States, a close ally of Israel, has repeatedly warned against an invasion.
Biden expressed his growing dissatisfaction with the hawkish Netanyahu and offered his harshest criticism yet of the war.
“I think what he did was a mistake,” Biden told US television network Univision in an interview taped last week that aired on Tuesday night.
He urged Netanyahu to “call for a ceasefire that allows full access to” all food and medicine into Gaza over the next six to eight weeks.
Talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been ongoing since Sunday, with Hamas still considering the latest proposal.
“Hamas is studying the proposals put forward… and has not responded yet,” Hamas spokesman in Doha Hossam Badran told AFP.
The framework being distributed would halt fighting for six weeks and exchange some 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
“It’s now up to Hamas to implement the proposals that have been made,” Biden said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Responding to the attack that killed his son and grandson, Haniyeh told Al Jazeera, “If they (Israel) thought that targeting my children… at the height of these negotiations and before the movement reacts, if They think this will force Hamas to change its position, and they are delusional.”
Beyond Washington, international criticism of Israel’s war conduct and lack of aid entering the territory is growing.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Wednesday that Israel’s “disproportionate response” in Gaza could “destabilize the Middle East and therefore the entire world.”
Several Western countries, including Ireland and Australia, have said Spain would recognize a Palestinian state in the near future as a starting point for wider peace talks.
– ‘Sea change’ in aid supply –
The health ministry said an attack on a house in the Nuserat refugee camp in central Gaza – the only area where Israeli ground forces are actively deployed – killed 14 people.
“Israeli forces continue operations in the central Gaza Strip and have killed a number of terrorists over the past day,” the Israeli military said on Wednesday.
The military added that the aircraft “struck dozens of terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including military sites, launchers, tunnel shafts and infrastructure”.
The U.S. Agency for International Development says Washington’s tougher line on aid has produced some results.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said aid deliveries had changed “dramatically” in recent days but insisted Israel needed to do more.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Israel would “deliver substantial assistance to Gaza” using a new crossing on the northern border, simplified inspections and two new routes organized jointly with Jordan.
He said they expected 500 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day, which would be comparable to the average number of aid and commercial trucks arriving in the area before the war.
Regional tensions increased during the conflict.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Israel that Israel “must and will be punished” for last week’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which Tehran blamed on Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz replied in Farsi that “if Iran launches an attack from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
