An airstrike that killed the son of Hamas' chief negotiator has cast a shadow over US-mediated talks on Gaza's future, even as those talks continue in Cairo. Reuters reports that Azzam al-Hayya, son of Hamas figure Khalil al-Hayya, died on Thursday from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike the previous night, Hamas official Basem Naim said. Azzam al-Hayya, who the AP reports was 32, is the fourth of Khalil al-Hayya's sons to have perished in Israeli attacks, Reuters notes.
Israel has repeatedly tried to assassinate the older al-Hayya, including in Gaza and, last year, in Qatar's Doha. An Israeli military source tells the Jerusalem Post that Azzam al-Hayya wasn't specifically targeted in the strike. "If he was harmed, it was because he was somewhere he should not have been," the source notes. Khalil al-Hayya, meanwhile, told Al Jazeera that if his son had been a target, "it would be an honor to me, to him, and to all Palestinians," per the AP.
Later Thursday, Gaza health officials and the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said an Israeli strike hit a police post in western Gaza City, killing at least three police officers and wounding others. The older al-Hayya accused Israel of trying to derail efforts to advance a US plan, brokered under President Trump and overseen by a "Board of Peace," that ties Israeli withdrawal and reconstruction to Hamas disarmament—a core dispute in the negotiations. Since an October ceasefire that was meant to launch the plan, at least 830 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza medics, while Israel says militants have killed four of its troops.
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