As reports of the death of the children and grandchildren of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, make news, an old video of an interview of his son, justifying the killing of Israeli soldiers by Palestinians and seeking to attain Jannah (heaven or paradise) if killed in the process has resurfaced.
Haniyeh’s eldest son, Abdel-Salam Haniyeh, confirmed the death of his brothers in a Facebook post. “Thanks to God who honoured us by the martyrdom of my brothers, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad and their children,” he wrote .
Also making rounds on the internet is a video clip that claims to be the moment Ismail Haniyeh is told that his three sons and grandchildren have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The report was relayed by the Palestinian Islamist group and Haniyeh’s family as well as the Israeli military, who described the three sons as operatives in the Hamas armed wing.
Haniyeh’s three sons named; Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad, and four grandchildren – three girls and a boy, were killed when the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp.
The deceased children making were visiting family members during the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday in Shati, their home refugee camp in Gaza City
However, the Israeli military has not commented on the killing of the little grandchildren.
According to a Hamas source to Al Jazeera TV; “The blood of my sons”, Haniyeh said, “is not dearer than the blood of our people”. The 61-year-old has 13 sons and daughters.
Hamas had wanted an end to the ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza, and permission for displaced Palestinians to return home, and on Tuesday, said he was studying an Israeli ceasefire proposal which he said was “intransigent” and met none of the Palestinian demands.
“Our demands are clear and specific and we will not make concessions on them. The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, at the climax of the negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position,” Haniyeh said.
