An Israeli air attack on Gaza has killed the son of Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s political bureau and the Palestinian group’s lead negotiator in indirect talks with Israel.
Azzam Khalil al-Hayya died of his injuries on Thursday at al-Shifa Hospital following an Israeli air raid on the Daraj neighbourhood late Wednesday night.
The death was confirmed on social media by senior Hamas official Basem Naim. According to medical reports, the attack also killed at least one other person and left nine others wounded.
This loss marks the fourth son Khalil al-Hayya has lost to Israeli military actions. Two of his sons were killed during fighting in 2008 and 2014, while a third was killed in an assassination attempt targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, in September last year.
Speaking on Wednesday before his son’s death was confirmed, Khalil al-Hayya stated that the “martyrdom” of leaders’ children would not intimidate the movement.
“Our sons are the sons of the Palestinian people, and my son and the sons of others are all sons of our people without distinction,” he said.
Taher al-Nono, an aide to al-Hayya, condemned the strike as a “peak of moral and ethical degradation,” asserting that such killings would only make negotiators more “steadfast” in defending Palestinian rights.
The strike on Azzam al-Hayya was part of a broader surge in violence on Wednesday. In northern Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, three members of one family were killed and several others wounded by a strike while attempting to set up a tent near the Salah al-Din Mosque.
In the south, an attack near al-Mawasi targeted a vehicle, killing Naseem al-Kalazani, the head of the anti-narcotics force in Khan Younis, and wounding at least 17 others.
Hamas has denounced these operations as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement signed in October last year and a continuation of a “war of extermination”. Data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza indicates that at least 837 Palestinians have been killed and 2,381 wounded since that ceasefire was enacted.
Since the start of the conflict in 2023, the total death toll has reached at least 72,619, with 172,484 others wounded, the majority being women and children. The United Nations has warned that conditions across Gaza remain “dire and often life-threatening”.
The recent escalation follows a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet to discuss renewing full-scale war after Hamas rejected demands for total disarmament.
Hamas maintains that the status of its weapons should only be settled within a framework leading to a Palestinian state, while calling for an end to Israeli expansion and an increase in humanitarian aid. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the recent strikes.
