Zionist Monsters Murder Seven of Hamas Leader’s Family Members

According to Hamas’ head Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group which has official responsibility for Palestinian civilians, and coordinates anti-Israeli militant operations there, the scene of the killings was the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The timing of the killings was Eid al-Fitr, normally a multi-day celebration of the end of the fast period of Ramadan for those of Islamic faith.

The name of that celebration translates to the “Festival of Breaking Fast”, symbolizing the end of the approximately month-long period of fasting. In a normal world, Ramadan would have begun after another celebration with certain foods. In Palestine, the breaking of the fast at the end would have been celebrated with families, relatives, and friends who had not seen each other in some time traveling to meet each other. There would be exchanges of gifts and special ceremonies to mark Eid, as the name is often shortened to. For Palestinians, there would be sharing of homemade graybeh, the local name for a butter cookie which is similarly shared among those of Islamic faith at this time in Lebanon, Syria, and Lebanon, though with slightly different recipes and names.

But this is not a normal time. It is the first Ramadan for some time in Gaza in which there was little to eat for anyone in the region for months, an artificial fast imposed by Israel as it first shut down all food and water, and replaced what would have normally a time of calm, meditation, and prayers this year with one of stark terror.

According to Ismail Haniyeh, when the air attacks came his three sons -- Amir, Hazem, and Mohammed – were at the Shati refugee camp with several of their own children. They were there to visit family members and more. Up to this point, some sixty of Haniyeh’s relatives died in the slaughter of Gazans, including fourteen who were killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during bombings in October within Gaza City, in the northern part of the Palestinian lands.

Yesterday’s airstrike on a car driven by Haniyeh’s family killed all three of those sons and at least four grandchildren.

There was little question it was a deliberate attack at least to kill the sons even before any official statements were made by Israel about what happened. As in the case of other assassinations by the zionists, this one featured high intensity warheads designed to obliterate their targets without spreading carnage much beyond them.

The aerial raid came down while Qatari and Egyptian representatives continue to host talks over a potential ceasefire in Doha, Qatar’s capital. Mossad representatives from Israel are reportedly occasional parties to those talks, as are Hamas representatives including Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh, who is currently in exile in Qatar and was not with his family at the time of the deaths. The United States also is involved in the negotiations for that ceasefire, though for now mostly at a substantial physical distance from the actual talks themselves.

An odd note about the attack is that zionists insist the decision to carry it out and all operational authorizations associated with it were carried out without the involvement or knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, or Israel’s War Cabinet. That official body, constituted on October 11, 2023, to tightly coordinate decision making and ensuring security of Israeli military plans, consists of Netanyahu, Gallant, and former Chief of the General Staff Benny Gantz. Three observers with no voting authority are also in that Cabinet.

Defense Minister Gallant told reporters after the attack that both he and Netanyahu were surprised by the news of the killings. It is likely plans had been in place to assassinate the three sons for some time, and that the IDF felt it had the authority to initiate such a strike at any time.

In response to that this seemed an uncoordinated surprise, zionists responded that decisions about airstrikes like the one which killed seven members of Haniyeh’s family are often delegated to battalion commanders. They do not require approval from levels as high as Netanyahu or his War Cabinet, they said.

The same official added that the military did not feel concerned running the strike while theoretically delicate talks regarding a ceasefire in the war are going on in parallel. He said that since there was no ceasefire proposal which might be close to agreement, there was little to lose at this time from killing the three Hamas military officials who just happened to be Haniyeh’s sons.

In the U.S., the White House denied having any advance knowledge of yesterday’s deadly attack.

“The enemy believes that by targeting the families of the leaders, it will push them to give up the demands of our people,' he said in a televised interview broadcast on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television network. “Anyone who believes that targeting my sons will push Hamas to change its position is delusional.”              

“We are committed to our demands - the permanent ceasefire, comprehensive and complete withdrawal of the enemy out of the Gaza Strip, the return of all displaced people to their homes, allowing all aid needed for our people in Gaza, rebuilding the Strip, lifting the blockade and achieving an honorable prisoner exchange deal,” he continued.

The “exchange deal” cited in Haniyeh’s remarks means for Hamas that all Palestinian prisoners taken since October 7 and held in Israeli jails would be exchanged for all Israelis currently held by Hamas in Gaza.

Israel continues to insist that there will be no permanent ceasefire, only a temporary one which must include the release of all captives held by Hamas. War criminals Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant said the war would resume after such a temporary pause in the mass killings, including the final assaults on Rafah.   

Dementia-ridden war criminal Biden also continues to maintain his ongoing support of the genocide. This is again despite his recent feigned public frustration with Netanyahu’s continued mass killings, unwillingness to allow enough food and other humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and apparent disgust at the targeted killing of the seven World Central Kitchen workers last week. His zionist handlers understand that some American voters have limited appetite for genocide and adjust the text on his teleprompter as needed.