Three sons and three grandchildren of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Wednesday, the Islamist group and family said.
The three sons - Hazem, Amir and Mohammad - were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza's Al-Shati camp, Hamas said.
"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 Israeli military confirmed carrying out the strike, saying in a statement that Haniyeh’s sons were all operatives of Hamas’ armed wing.
Officials and government media in Iran did not immediately react to the news, except Fars News, affiliated with the IRGC that reported on the incident.
"The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people," said Haniyeh, who is based abroad in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.
Haniyeh, based abroad in Qatar, has been the tough-talking face of Hamas' international diplomacy as war with Israel has raged on in Gaza, where his family home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike back in November.
In the seventh month of the Gaza war Hamas wants an end to Israeli military operations and a withdrawal from the enclave, and permission for displaced Palestinians to return home.
Haniyeh's eldest son confirmed in a Facebook post that his three brothers were killed. "Thanks to God who honored us by the martyrdom of my brothers, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad and their children," wrote Abdel-Salam Haniyeh.
Appointed to the militant group's top job in 2017, Haniyeh has moved between Turkey and Qatar's capital Doha, avoiding Israeli-imposed travel restrictions in blockaded Gaza, and enabling him to act as a negotiator in the latest ceasefire negotiations, or communicate with Hamas' main ally Iran.
Israel regards the entire Hamas leadership as terrorists, accusing Haniyeh and other leaders of continuing to "pull the strings of the Hamas terror organization".