New Delhi:
Israeli troops have struck the house of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. The Israeli Defence Forces shared a video today of fighter jets bombing a house, which they claim is Ismail Haniyeh’s.
Haniyeh is the head of Hamas’ political bureau and among the highest-ranking officials in the organisation that governs Gaza. He is regarded as the head of Hamas by several countries.
Israel claims Haniyeh’s house was “used as terrorist infrastructure” and was being used as a meeting point by senior Hamas leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.
חטיבת האש 215 באוגדה 162 תקפה הלילה באמצעות מטוסי קרב את ביתו של איסמעיל הנייה, ראש הלשכה המדינית של ארגון הטרור חמאס ששימש כתשתית טרור ובין היתר כמקום מפגש עבור בכירי הארגון>> pic.twitter.com/eCwd4lmrFF
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 16, 2023
Haniyeh came into the limelight in the late 1990s and was the right-hand man to the Hamas founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in Gaza before the cleric was assassinated in 2004.
He was elected as the Palestine Prime Minister after leading Hamas to victory in 2006.
Haniyeh was chosen as the Hamas leader in 2017 and has largely controlled his group’s political activities from outside Gaza.
Israeli troops today also located and destroyed a Hamas naval forces weapons cache, containing diving gear, explosive devices and weapons, the IDF said.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the attacks of October 7, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
Hamas also took around 240 people hostage, among them elderly people and young children.
But with the Hamas-run health ministry claiming the death toll from the offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children, calls for a truce are mounting.
Source link: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israel-hamas-war-hamas-chief-home-bombed-israeli-air-strike-destroys-home-of-top-hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-4578648