Al-Aqsa TV said Hazem, Ameer and Mohammed Haniyeh were killed in the strike near the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, where Ismail Haniyeh is originally from. Hamas said three of Haniyeh’s granddaughters and a grandson were also killed. Hamas did not disclose their ages.

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The brothers were travelling with family members in a single vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone, Al-Aqsa TV said.

The Israeli military said Mohammed and Hazem were Hamas military operatives and that Ameer was a cell commander. It said they had conducted militant activity in the central Gaza Strip, without elaborating. It did not comment about the grandchildren killed.

The strike on Haniyeh’s family is the latest bloodshed in a war with no end in sight.

Fighting against Hamas will take time. Boys who are now in middle school will still fight in the Gaza Strip.

Benny Gantz, Israeli war cabinet minister

Earlier, Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz claimed Hamas has been defeated militarily, although he also said Israel will fight it for years to come.

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“From a military point of view, Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding” and its capabilities “crippled”, Gantz said in a statement to the media in the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

But he added: “Fighting against Hamas will take time. Boys who are now in middle school will still fight in the Gaza Strip”.

Gantz reiterated the Israeli government’s commitment to go into Rafah, the city at the far southern tip of the Gaza Strip where more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people are now sheltering.

For Palestinians, the strike on Haniyeh’s family darkened an already grim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Palestinians marked the holiday by visiting the graves of loved ones killed in the war. In the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, people sat quietly by graves surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israel’s offensive, which was launched in response to the deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel October 7.

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As misery in Gaza lingers, Israel has faced increasing pressure, including from its own top ally, the US, to change tack in the war, especially regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid.

This week, US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza a mistake and urged his government to flood the beleaguered territory with aid. He repeated that call again on Thursday (AEST), saying the efforts to boost aid were “not enough” and demanding another entry point for trucks in northern Gaza.