Israeli attack kills ten relatives of Hamas leader Haniyeh – Naharnet

The Gaza Strip’s Civil Defense Authority said an Israeli airstrike early Tuesday killed ten members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s family. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the attack.

The attack hit the Haniyeh family’s home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for civil defense in the Hamas-ruled area.

“There are 10 martyrs … as a result of the attack, including Zahr Haniyeh, the sister of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh,” Basal told AFP.

He said numerous bodies were probably still under the rubble, but “we do not have the necessary equipment” to recover them.

Civil defense teams took the bodies to Al-Ahli Hospital in nearby Gaza City, Basal added, also reporting “several injured” in the attack.

When asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “aware of the reports but could not confirm them.”

Haniyeh, the Qatar-based political leader of Hamas, lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli attack in central Gaza in April, which the military accused of “terrorist activities.”

Haniyeh said at the time that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the Palestinian militant group’s war with Israel began on October 7.

The war began after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP news agency count based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 37,626 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then in Israel’s heavy air, land and sea attacks.