Israeli attack on Gaza kills one person, wounds son of Hamas’s al-Hayya

An Israeli air attack on Gaza City has killed one person and wounded the son of Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s political bureau and the group’s top negotiator in indirect talks with Israel.

The attack took place in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood on Wednesday and wounded at least nine other Palestinians, according to medics.

Two other air raids on the same day killed four others, including a senior colonel in Gaza’s police force.

Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera his son, Azzam, was “seriously wounded” in the attack.

He identified the man who was killed as Hamza al-Sharbasi.

“I say to the occupation and to all who hear us, we are a people with a just cause. Neither the killing of our sons nor the martyrdom of our leaders will intimidate us,” al-Hayya said. “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. Our feelings toward them are one and the same.”

Al-Hayya had already lost ⁠three sons in previous Israeli attempts on his life – two in Gaza in the 2008 and 2014 rounds of fighting, while the third was killed in an Israeli attempt to kill Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital, Doha, last year.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

“Targeting Azzam Khalil Al-Hayya with shelling represents a peak of moral and ethical degradation,” said Taher al-Nono, a Hamas official and an aide to Hayya, in a Facebook post.

“Shelling and killing only make the ‌negotiator more steadfast in his positions, in defending his people’s rights, and in their free will,” he added.

The attack on Azzam al-Hayya followed two other Israeli raids on Wednesday on northern Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood and another on the southern al-Mawasi area.

The Israeli attack on Zeitoun killed three Palestinians from one family and wounded several others as they attempted to set up a tent near the Salah al-Din Mosque, according to medics.

The other attack killed Naseem al-Kalazani, the head of the anti-narcotics force in Khan Younis, when Israeli forces targeted his vehicle near the al-Mawasi area.

At least 17 others were wounded, according to medics.

Hamas condemned the violence as a “blatant violation” of a “ceasefire” agreement signed in October of last year. It said the attacks were “a continuation of the ongoing war of extermination against our people in the Strip”.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 837 Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” last year. Some 2,381 others have been wounded.

In total, at least 72,619 people have been killed and 172,484 wounded since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in 2023. The majority of the victims are children and women.

Much of Gaza lies in ruins, while the United Nations says conditions across the territory “remain dire and often life-threatening, while humanitarian action continues to be constrained”.

Israel’s security cabinet, meanwhile, met earlier this week to discuss renewing the genocidal war after Hamas refused to commit to Israel’s demand for full disarmament.

Hamas has insisted that its weapons only be addressed as part of a framework culminating in a Palestinian state. It has also demanded that Israel cease expanding its control in Gaza and increase the flow of aid there.