Israeli forces kill 24 Palestinians in three attacks as Hamas accuses Biden administration of war of ‘extermination’.
An Israeli airstrike killed 10 family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian group and the enclave’s civil defense agency.
Confirming the attack on the Haniyeh family and the death toll, Hamas said on Tuesday that it held the administration of US President Joe Biden responsible for continuing the war of “extermination” against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip.
He said the United States continued to give Israel “political and military cover and time to carry out the task of destruction and extermination in the Gaza Strip.”
Mahmud Basal, a spokesman for the civil protection agency, told the AFP news agency that Tuesday morning’s attack targeted the Haniyeh family’s home in Shati.
“There are 10 martyrs… as a result of this strike, including Zahr Haniyeh, sister of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh,” Basal said, adding that a number of bodies were probably still under the rubble but “we do not have the necessary means”. equipment” to extract them.
Civil defense teams transferred the bodies to al-Ahli hospital in neighboring Gaza City, Basal said, also reporting “several injuries” in the attack.
In a statement, Hamas called on “the international community and the United Nations to shoulder their responsibilities in the face of these ongoing horrific crimes, to take urgent measures to protect innocent civilians and to hold the terrorist leaders of the occupation accountable for their crimes.”
The Israeli military said two buildings were targeted overnight in Shati and Daraj Tuffah, saying fighters involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, before the current conflict, were hiding there. His statement published on social networks does not mention the attack on the Haniyeh family home.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s team on the ground said the Haniyeh family dead included Zahr Abdel Salam Haniyeh, Nahed Haniyeh Abu Ghazi, Iman Haniyeh Umm Ghazi, Ismail Nahed Haniyeh, Muhammad Nahed Haniyeh, Moamen Nahed Haniyeh, Zahra Nahed Haniyeh, Amal Nahed Haniyeh and Shahad. Nahed Haniyeh and Sumaya Nahed Haniyeh.
In April, an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed Haniyeh’s three sons and four grandchildren, with the army accusing them of “terrorist activities.”
Haniyeh said at the time that around 60 members of his family had been killed since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7 last year. The war left more than 37,600 dead in the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue even if a ceasefire deal was reached with Hamas.