An Israeli air strike has killed the son of Hamas’ chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza’s future, a senior Hamas official said yesterday, as leaders of the fighter group held talks in Cairo aimed at safeguarding their truce with Israel.
Azzam Al Hayya, son of Khalil Al Hayya, succumbed to his wounds yesterday after being struck in an Israeli attack on Wednesday night, health and Hamas officials said. He was the fourth son of Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief to have been killed in Israeli attacks.
Later yesterday, health officials and the Hamas-run interior ministry said at least three police officers were killed, and other people, including one policeman, were wounded when an Israeli air strike targeted a police post in western Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command centre in the northern Gaza Strip, killing several fighters who were inside it. The military added that fighters were operating to “advance and carry out terror attacks” against Israeli forces and civilians.
Reuters has reported that Israel has intensified its attacks on Gaza’s Hamas-run police force, which the fighter group has used to reinforce its hold in the areas it controls in the strip.
Hayya has survived multiple Israeli attempts to kill him. An Israeli strike in Doha last year targeting Hamas leadership killed another son, though Hayya survived. Two other sons were killed in past Israeli attempts on his life, in Gaza strikes in 2008 and 2014.
Speaking to Al Jazeera after the attack on Wednesday night, before his son’s death was announced, Hayya accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators’ efforts to push ahead with US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, overseen by his so-called “Board of Peace”.
“These Zionist attacks and violations clearly indicate that the occupation does not want to abide by a ceasefire or by the first phase,” Hayya said.
Chanting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is Greatest”, dozens of Palestinians rallied in Gaza at the funeral of Hayya, the son, and held special prayers before walking him to burial.
“Your martyrdom, my beloved brother, you and my brother Hammam, and Osama and Hamza, will not deter my father, Dr Khalil Al Hayya, from this principle, nor from these constants,” the victim’s sister said inside the morgue.
The group’s Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, said the killing of the Hamas leader’s son was a failed attempt by Israel to influence the negotiating team and win political concessions.
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