The three sons of Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh eliminated in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday, were involved in holding Israeli hostages and other terrorists activities, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Wednesday.
The confirmations comes after Arab and Israeli media reported the killing of Hamas chief’s sons and grandsons in Gaza when an Israeli fighter jet hit the car they were driving in.
An Israeli “aircraft struck three Hamas military operatives that conducted terrorist activity in the central Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in press release Thursday. According to the Israel military, the targeted terrorists were the “sons of Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s political bureau.”
“The three operatives that were struck are Amir Haniyeh, a cell commander in the Hamas military wing, Mohammad Haniyeh, a military operative in the Hamas terrorist organization, and Hazem Haniyeh, also a military operative in the Hamas terror organization,” the IDF statement said.
The Israeli news website YNET reported further details of the IDF strike:
Hazem, Amir and Mohammad Haniyeh were killed in an aerial strike on their car. The IDF said they were operatives in Hamas. The terror group said four of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed.According to the military and the Shin Bet, Amir Haniyeh was a squad commander in the terror group’s military wing, while Hazem and Mohammad Haniyeh were lower-ranking operatives, also in the military wing.The decision to target the three was made by the IDF after intelligence was received warning of terrorism activity, without the need for approval from the government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were not advised of the intention to attack, in advance.
Haniyeh, who lives a life of safety and luxury in the oil-rich Arab state of Qatar, has a large and extended family in Gaza.
The IDF does not have a policy of targeting the family members of wanted terrorists. In fact, one of Haniyeh’s daughters has been receiving medical treatment in Israel despite her father’s hand in the October 7 massacre.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned Iran against carrying out an attack on Israel.
“We are in challenging times. We are in the middle of the war in Gaza which continues in full force,” Netanyahu told a group of air force personnel. “At the same time we continue the non-stop effort to return our hostages, but we are also preparing for scenarios of challenges from other arenas.”
“We have established a simple principle: whoever hurts us, gets hurt. We are preparing to meet the security needs of the State of Israel both in defense and in offense,” he added.
The warning comes amid mounting intelligence that Tehran and its terror proxies in the region are planning a large-scale attack on Israeli soil.
“The US and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel are imminent,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
According to the news outlet. the Iranian attack, expected to take place in coming day, was “a matter of when, not if.”
“The potential assault, possibly using high-precision missiles, may happen in the coming days, the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential matters. It is seen as more a matter of when, not if, one of the people said, based on assessments from US and Israeli intelligence,” Bloomberg noted.
Reported the latest U.S. and Israeli intelligence assessment, the Jerusalem Post wrote Wednesday:
The US and its allies predict a potential Iranian missile or UAV strike against Israel to be imminent, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday night, citing sources familiar with intelligence information.The attack may reportedly occur in the coming days and be carried out by Iran or its proxies in the region.According to the report, basing themselves on Israeli and US intelligence, the officials discussed the probability that highly precise missiles might be used in the attack to target Israeli military and governmental locations.
Aimed at deterring Iran, the Israeli air force conducted an long-range exercise simulating a strike on Iranian targets, media reports on Thursday confirm. The U.S. and Cyprus also took part in the drill which took place in the Mediterranean Sea.
The i24NEWS reports:
The Israel Air Force (IAF) has reportedly conducted a drill simulating the scenario of Iranian attack. The exercise is said to have been held in cooperation with Cyprus and the United States forces, suggested social media reports, including the one posted by military correspondent Doron Kadosh.The participants are said to have practised long-range attacks, playing out the scenario of retaliation against Iran.Kadosh wrote: “As part of increasing preparation for Iran’s possible response, which may also be followed by an Israeli response on Iranian soil, in recent days, a joint exercise was carried out with the Cypriot army in the airspace of Cyprus, simulating an air operation and an attack on a remote target.””The exercise was designed to simulate an attack in Iran,” read the post.Kadosh also quoted a senior IDF official saying: “We know and are prepared to act in any arena, and maintain independent abilities to act on our own – we don’t rely on anyone.”
After withdrawing most of the ground troops from Gaza over the weekend, the IDF kept up the pressure on the Hamas’s terrorist fighting force across the enclave.
The Israeli armed forces we conducting aerial and naval strikes on terrorist targets. “Overnight, the 162nd Division began a precise, intelligence-based operation to eliminate terrorist operatives and strike terrorist infrastructure in central Gaza,” the IDF said in statement Thursday. “Prior to the entrance of the troops to the area, IAF fighter jets and additional aircraft struck terrorist infrastructure above and below the ground in the central Gaza Strip.”
“Israeli Navy conducted a number of targeted strikes along the coastline in the central Gaza Strip in order to assist ground troops operating in the area,” the statement added.
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