An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday killed three sons of one of Hamas’s most senior leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, who said the attack would not weaken the group’s negotiating position or its resolve in its fight against Israel.
Mr. Haniyeh, who heads Hamas’ politburo from exile, is a longtime leader of the group. It is also involved in stalled negotiations with Israel through international mediators seeking to broker a ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“The enemy is delusional if it thinks that by killing my children, we will change our positions,” Mr. Haniya said in a statement. “We will not back down, no matter the sacrifices.”
Israeli ground troops have largely withdrawn from Gaza, but Israel continues to conduct airstrikes across the territory, as well as fighting in a strip in central Gaza where the Israeli army maintains a presence.
Mr Haniyeh, who has long shuttled between Qatar and Turkey, said in the statement that 60 members of his extended family had been killed by Israel over time and that Wednesday’s strike had killed some grandchildren in addition to the three sons .
Critics of Hamas, including some Palestinians, have accused the organization’s leadership of living a lavish lifestyle abroad as people in Gaza suffer dire humanitarian conditions. Mr. Haniyeh on Wednesday cast his loss in the broader context of Palestinian suffering.
“All members of our people and the families of the people of Gaza have paid a heavy price for the blood of their children,” he said. “I am one of them.”
Mr. Haniyeh did not elaborate on his sons’ roles in Hamas, but described them as martyrs, saying in a statement on the group’s official Telegram account that they remained in the Gaza Strip while he led Hamas’ political bureau from exile.
Confirming the hit on Mr Haniyeh’s three adult sons – whom it named as Amir, Mohammad and Hazem Haniyeh – the Israeli military said all three were Hamas soldiers. The strike was held on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The killing of Mr Haniyeh’s family members came as Israel continued to threaten to launch an attack on the southern town of Rafah and as both sides discussed new ceasefire proposals.
As part of those cease-fire talks, Hamas informed Israel on Wednesday that it could not locate 40 Israeli hostages in Gaza whom the Israelis hoped would be freed as part of a proposed first step in the deal, a senior Israeli and a a senior Hamas official said.
A framework being negotiated by international mediators includes the initial exchange of 40 live hostages, including female soldiers, disabled and older hostages, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
There are about 100 live hostages remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. The Hamas official said on Wednesday that Israel is demanding that young men and soldiers now be among the first 40 prisoners released to meet the demands of the negotiated framework.
Amid talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, Iran and Israel have exchanged fresh threats in recent days, raising fears of a wider regional war.
Iran has vowed to respond to Israel’s April 1 strike on an Iranian embassy building in Damascus, Syria, which killed several senior Iranian military commanders.
The Israeli strike on Damascus was among the most significant attacks in a long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran that has included the assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. Israel accuses Iran of supporting and arming proxies hostile to Israel throughout the region, such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeated threats of retaliation against Israel in a speech he gave on Wednesday for Eid al-Fitr. Attacking an embassy building, he said, “means they have attacked our territory.”
“The evil regime made a mistake and it should be punished and it will be punished,” he added, according to IRNA, the state news agency.
The response from Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, was swift: “If Iran attacks from its soil, Israel will react and attack Iran,” he wrote in Persian on X, tagging Mr Khamenei in the post of.
Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the Damascus strike, but several Israeli officials have confirmed the country’s involvement.
Analysts have warned that while both sides likely want to avoid open war, any miscalculation could spill over and lead to a wider regional escalation.
US officials said they were preparing for a possible Iranian response.
President Biden has been increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Wednesday he told reporters he had been “blunt and forthright” with Mr Netanyahu when they spoke last week after the killing of seven aid workers by Israeli forces, making clear that Israel needed to change its behavior in the six-month war or face consequences.
Mr. Biden on Wednesday repeated his call for Israel to “do more” in facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza. “We’ll see what he does in terms of fulfilling the commitments he made to me,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Netanyahu.
Tensions between the Biden administration and the government of Israel have risen as the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 33,000. In an interview broadcast on Tuesday night, Mr Biden called Mr Netanyahu’s approach to the war “wrong”.
In the interview, which was taped last Wednesday and aired on Univision, Mr. Biden again referred to the aid workers’ strike as “outrageous” and said he did not approve of Mr. Netanyahu’s approach to the war.
“I think what he’s doing is wrong. I don’t agree with his approach,” Mr. Biden said, echoing statements he made last month. “What I’m asking is that they just ask the Israelis for a ceasefire.”
Israel has acknowledged that the killing of the seven World Kitchen aid workers was the result of a series of mistakes within the military. The Univision interview was recorded two days after that strike, and the day before Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu had a tense 30-minute phone call.
In that call, Mr. Biden threatened to make future support for Israel conditional on how it addressed its concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That prompted Israel to pledge to allow more food and other supplies into the besieged territory, including opening the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza for aid deliveries.
The United Nations says a man-made famine is looming in Gaza, and many experts say conditions in northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from aid deliveries since the start of the war, already meet the criteria for famine. In this part of the territory, a few hundred thousand people survive on an average of 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam, a humanitarian group.
The Israeli military’s focus appears to be in the south, where Israeli leaders say they are preparing for an invasion of Rafah, which shares a border with Egypt and is swollen with more than a million displaced Palestinians. Rafah is also home to what the Israeli military says are battalions of the Hamas it has vowed to destroy.
Adam Rasgon and Peter Baker contributed to the report.
