Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, lost three sons to an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Wednesday, according to Haniyeh’s family and the Palestinian Islamist organization.
The car the three sons, Hazem, Amir, and Muhammad, were driving in in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp was bombed, resulting in their deaths, according to Hamas. According to Hamas media, the attack also claimed the lives of two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren and injured a third.

“Our demands are clear and specific and we will not make concessions on them. The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, at the climax of the negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position,” Haniyeh told pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV.

“The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people,” said Haniyeh.

Since the war with Israel has raged back in the Gaza Strip, where Haniyeh’s family home was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike back in November, he has been the tough-talking face of Hamas’ international diplomacy.

On Tuesday, Hamas announced that although it was “intransigent” and did not address any of the Palestinian demands, it was still studying an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire.

Israel accuses Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders of continuing to “pull the strings of the Hamas terror organization” and views the entire Hamas leadership as terrorists.

It’s unclear, though, how much Haniyeh was aware of the cross-border attack on Israel on October 7th, which was carried out by operatives based in Gaza. The attack plan was formulated by the Hamas military council in Gaza, and was kept so secret that its timing and scope appeared surprising to some Hamas officials overseas.