According to the civil defence agency in Gaza, an airstrike conducted by Israel early Tuesday resulted in the death of 10 family members of Hamas’s Qatar-based leader, Ismail Haniyeh, including his sister.
The Israeli military, currently engaged in a campaign to dismantle Hamas following the October 7 attack, stated that they were aware of the reports but could not confirm them.
The strike targeted the Haniyeh family residence in the Al-Shati refugee camp located in the northern Gaza Strip. Mahmud Basal, spokesperson for the civil defence agency in the Hamas-controlled territory, revealed that there are likely additional bodies trapped beneath the rubble, although they lack the necessary equipment to extract them.
The bodies have been transported to Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, and Basal also reported several injured individuals from the attack.
Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and several Western allies, including the United States, released a statement condemning the bombing and listed it as one of the “massacres” Israel has allegedly committed in the Palestinian territory.
This incident marks another tragic loss for Haniyeh, who previously lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli strike in April. Haniyeh claimed that approximately 60 members of his family have been killed since the war began on October 7.
The war originated from Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,195 individuals, predominantly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the health ministry of the territory, the ongoing air, land, and sea campaign by Israel has resulted in the deaths of a minimum of 37,626 individuals in Gaza, predominantly civilians.
