Israeli Airstrike Kills Azzam Al-Hayya, Son of Hamas Chief Negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya

An Israeli airstrike killed Azzam al-Hayya, the son of Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, after he was struck in an Israeli attack on Wednesday night and succumbed to his wounds on Thursday.

The killing occurred as Hamas leaders held talks in Cairo aimed at safeguarding their truce with Israel, with the violence framed by Hamas as pressure on mediators and the negotiating team.

Al Jazeera

Haaretz reported that Azzam al-Hayya was the fourth son of the group’s political bureau head to have been killed in Israeli attacks, and it said the Hamas leader argued the attacks indicate that Israel does not want to abide by a cease-fire.

In Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital said Azzam Khalil al-Hayya “was martyred after succumbing to wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike targeting him yesterday,” and it placed the strike in the al-Daraj district east of Gaza City.

The same reporting tied the funeral to the negotiation process, with Al-Jazeera Net describing Gaza City holding a funeral on Thursday for the body of Azzam Khalil al-Hayya, the son of the Hamas leader and head of its negotiating delegation.

Speaking to Al Jazeera after the attack on Wednesday night, before his son’s death was announced, Khalil al-Hayya accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators’ efforts to push ahead with US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, saying, “These Zionist attacks and violations clearly indicate that the occupation does not want to abide by a ceasefire or by the first phase,”.

At the funeral, the Gaza spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Reuters that the killing was a failed attempt by Israel to influence the negotiating team and win political concessions, adding, “We say that this repeated policy of targeting the leaders and the sons of leaders will not succeed in extorting a political position from our Palestinian people, nor the Hamas leadership, nor its negotiating delegation,”.

Al-Istad ar-Riyadi

Haaretz framed the moment through Hamas’s claim about cease-fire compliance, reporting that the Hamas leader said attacks indicate that Israel “does not want to abide by a cease-fire.”

Other outlets also tied the strike to the negotiation timetable, with the Detroit News noting that leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions held talks in Cairo with the Board of Peace’s lead envoy Nickolay Mladenov to push Trump’s Gaza plan into its second phase.

In parallel, the Los Angeles Times reported that Hamas said the 32-year-old son of its chief negotiator died after being wounded by an Israeli strike in Gaza City, while Israel’s military “has not commented on the strike,” and it described Hamas accusing Israel of targeting family members to pressure negotiators.

The strike landed amid a dispute over implementing the October ceasefire, with multiple sources describing Hamas disarmament as a sticking point and linking talks in Cairo to moving Trump’s Gaza plan into its second phase.

The Detroit News reported that a Hamas official told Reuters that the group would not engage in serious talks over the implementation of the second phase before Israel concluded obligations from the first phase, including “a complete halt to attacks,”.

FBC News and other reporting put the casualty backdrop in dispute, saying at least 830 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire deal took effect, while Israel says militants have killed four of its soldiers over the same period.

The Los Angeles Times expanded the broader war toll, saying “More than 72,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began,” and it described residents struggling with severe water shortages, disease, and lack of shelter in sprawling camps.

Al-Jazeera Net said Hamas condemned the targeting as a “cowardly crime” within a pattern aimed at influencing political positions, and it asserted that the movement’s communiqué said the operations “will not push the resistance to retreat from its principles” regarding halting aggression, ending the siege, and complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.