Tarek Chouiref
07 May 2026•Update: 07 May 2026
The son of Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya was seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, the Palestinian group said late Wednesday.
In remarks to Al Jazeera, al-Hayya said Hamza al-Sharbasi was killed in the strike on Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood, while his son Azzam and several others suffered severe injuries.
Al-Hayya described the attack as “an extension of the Israeli aggression against our people everywhere” and linked it to what he said were Israeli attempts to pressure Palestinian negotiators through “killing, terror and intimidation.”
He said the political message behind the strike was to force Palestinian negotiators and leaders into submission by signaling that neither they nor their children were beyond targeting.
While not explicitly confirming whether his son was the intended target, al-Hayya said Israel “claims responsibility when operations succeed and invents different justifications when they fail,” adding that assassinations had become a daily occurrence under a systematic policy of intimidation.
He said such attacks would not break the will of Palestinians, stressing that Palestinians “will not leave their land and will not surrender.”
Al-Hayya also accused Israel of failing to comply with the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, saying more than 850 Palestinians had been killed over the past seven months alongside thousands of injuries amid systematic starvation and restrictions on aid deliveries.
He said Hamas had submitted daily reports on ceasefire violations to mediators and guarantors, calling particularly on the United States to pressure Israel to implement the agreement.
The remarks came hours after five Palestinians, including a police officer, were killed and several others injured in Israeli strikes targeting civilian gatherings and a police vehicle in northern and southern Gaza amid continued ceasefire violations.
Hamas on Wednesday accused Israel of escalating attacks in Gaza in violation of the ceasefire agreement and called on the US and mediating countries to intervene to halt the offensive.
The Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement was signed in October 2025 under Egyptian, US, Qatari and Turkish sponsorship and entered into force on Oct. 10.
Israel has continued to violate the agreement, resulting in the deaths of 837 Palestinians and injuries to 2,381 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ceasefire followed two years of an Israeli war that began on Oct. 8, 2023, killing more than 72,000 Palestinians, wounding over 172,000 others and devastating about 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
