Hamas leader's chilling reaction as he is told his three sons have been killed by IDF - shrugging off the news and saying 'No, why? Let's continue' when asked if he wants to end hospital tour

Chilling video shows the moment top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh hears for the first time that his three sons and 'several' grandchildren have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

A deeply distressed voice can be heard delivering the news to the group's top political leader, sobbing as he says: 'Hazem, Mohammed and Amir have been killed, along with their children.'

Haniyeh barely flinches as he hears the information, and remains composed as he nods and takes it in before slowly walking out of the room. 'God rest their souls,' he says, before he is asked by an aide: 'Shall we end the visit?'

The Hamas chief nonchalantly responds: 'No, why? Let's continue,' as he walks to the door, followed by his entourage and officials. The group were meeting wounded Palestinians at a hospital in Qatar, where Haniyeh lives in exile.

Haniyeh's family members are said to have been killed in a fatal strike near the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Israel claims Mohammed and Hazem were two Hamas military operatives, while the third, Amir, was a cell commander.

Haniyeh, 61, who has 13 sons and daughters according to Hamas sources, later confirmed the news to Al Jazeera, telling the broadcaster: 'I am grateful to God for the honor he has given me in the deaths of three of my children and a few of my grandchildren.' 

'My sons were awarded this honor. They remained with our Palestinian people in Gaza, did not leave and did not run,' he said, adding: 'The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people.'

The terror leader hit out at Israel, stating they are 'driven by the spirit of revenge' as he claimed around 60 members of his family have been killed since the start of the war. 

Hama later said that four of Haniyeh's grandchildren, named as Mona, Amal, Khaled and Razan, were among those killed in what they described as the 'treacherous and cowardly' strike. The Israeli military did not comment on the reports. 

A report today has suggested that Israeli forces carried out the air strike without consulting senior commanders or political leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Quoting senior Israeli officials, Walla news agency said neither Netanyahu nor Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had been told in advance of the strike, which was coordinated by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service.

It said Amir, Mohammad and Hazem Haniyeh had been targeted as fighters and not because they were the sons of Hamas's political leader.

No comment on the Walla report was immediately available from the prime minister's office or the military.

The IDF claimed that the trio were 'en route to carry out terror activity in the area of central Gaza' when they were hit by the strike. 

Pictures purporting to show Hazem, Amir and Mohammed Haniyeh have been circulating on Palestinian media channels.

Images have also emerged of the scene of the strike, with the shell of a bombed-out car pictured being inspected by passersby in Shati camp, west of Gaza City.

Haniyeh yesterday confirmed to Al Jazeera 'the martyrdom of my three sons and some of my grandchildren'. 

The terror chief said: 'Through the blood of the martyrs and the pain of the injured, we create hope, we create the future, we create independence and freedom for our people and our nation,' the terror chief said.

The three brothers - Hazem, Ameer and Mohammed - were travelling with family members in a single vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone, Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV said. 

It revealed a total of six people were killed, including a daughter of Hazem Haniyeh, and a son and daughter of Amir.

Ismail Haniyeh, who now lives in exile in Qatar, is originally from Shati.

The deaths were confirmed by Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station as well as Haniyeh family members on social media.   

The killing of Haniyeh's relatives has added a potential complication to negotiations aimed at securing a halt in the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the return of the 133 Israeli hostages still believed to be held in the besieged enclave.

Haniyeh said Hamas had 'clear and specific' demands for agreeing to any pause in the fighting.

'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 said on Wednesday.

He added: 'Their pure blood is for the liberation of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and we will continue to march on our road, and will not hesitate and will not falter. 

'With their blood, we bring about hope, a future and freedom for our people and our cause.'

It comes after the Hamas chief said last Wednesday that his Palestinian Islamist movement at war with Israel was sticking to its conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, including an Israeli military withdrawal.   

Israeli officials visited Egypt at the start of last week in a bid to secure a deal, but a Palestinian official close to the mediation procedure said there had been no signs that a breakthrough was underway.

'We are committed to our demands - the permanent ceasefire, comprehensive and complete withdrawal of the enemy out of the Gaza Strip, the return of all displaced people to their homes, allowing all aid needed for our people in Gaza, rebuilding the Strip, lifting the blockade and achieving an honourable prisoner exchange deal,' Haniyeh said in a televised speech marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day.

The 'exchange deal' the supreme leader mentioned would be the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in return for Israeli hostages being held by militants in Gaza since the deadly October 7 massacre on the Supernova music festival in Israel, led by Hamas. 

Israel responded saying it was only interested in a temporary truce to free hostages, but Hamas said it will only let them go as part of a deal to permanently put an end to the war.

Netanyahu's Security Cabinet met late Tuesday to discuss the hostage negotiations but did not appear to make any decisions. 

US President Joe Biden also commented on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza - calling it a 'mistake'.

Issuing some of his sternest criticism to date of Israel's war on Hamas, Biden slammed Israeli PM and reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire. 

He urged Netanyahu 'to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country'. 

The US President also condemned again IDF drone strikes on a food aid convoy that killed seven workers - including three Brits.

He described the attacks as 'outrageous' as his patience seemingly begins to grow thin with Netanyahu.

Biden's administration has taken a more stern line with Israel, rattling the countries' decades-old alliance and deepening Israel's international isolation over the war.

The most serious disagreement has been over Israel's plans for an offensive in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah. 

The rift was worsened by an Israeli airstrike last week on an aid convoy that killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, most of them foreigners. 

Israel said the deaths were unintentional but Biden was outraged.

Biden's latest comments, made in an interview that aired late Tuesday and recorded two days after the World Central Kitchen strike, highlight the differences between Israel and the US over humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, where the war has led to warnings of imminent famine for more than a million people.

'I think what he's doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach,' Biden told Spanish-language TV network Univision in an interview that aired Tuesday night.

Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza in the early days of the war, but under US pressure has slowly increased trucks allowed to enter the territory. 

Still, aid groups say supplies are not reaching desperate people quickly enough, blaming Israeli restrictions and noting that thousands of trucks are waiting to enter Gaza. 

Countries have attempted less efficient ways to deliver aid including airdrops and by sea.

Israel says its has opened up more entry points for trucks to enter and reach especially hard-hit areas like northern Gaza, an early target of Israel in the war. 

Israel also accuses aid groups of being too slow to deliver aid once it's inside Gaza.

Netanyahu has vowed to achieve 'total victory' in the war, pledging to destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attacks and to return the hostages. 

He says that victory must include an offensive in Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas' last major stronghold, but more than half of Gaza's 2.3million people are currently seeking shelter there.

Six months into the war, Israel is growing ever more isolated, with even its closest partner increasingly vocal about its discontent in the war's direction and longtime trading partners like Turkey taking potentially painful economic steps to express dismay.

Netanyahu, who is on trial for alleged corruption, is under pressure to decide on a postwar vision for Gaza. 

But critics say he is delaying because he doesn't want to anger his ultranationalist governing partners, who support resettling the Gaza Strip, which Israel withdrew from in 2005 and an idea Netanyahu has ruled out.

Netanyahu's governing partners also oppose making significant concessions to Hamas in the ongoing negotiations. 

They have threatened to exit the government - a step that would cause the ruling coalition to collapse and trigger new elections.

'If the prime minister thinks that there's going to be a reckless deal here, it isn't going to pass,' Limor Sonn Har Melech, a lawmaker in the hard-line Jewish Power party, said in an interview to an Israeli radio station. 

'If we realize that the meaning of stopping this war is capitulation to Hamas, we won't be there.'

Israel launched the war in response to Hamas' cross-border assault, where militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 33,400 Palestinians have been killed in the relentless fighting, according to Gaza's Health Ministry which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead are women and children. 

Israel says it has killed some 12,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has ignited a humanitarian catastrophe. 

Most of the territory's population has been displaced and with vast swaths of Gaza's urban landscape leveled in the fighting, many areas are uninhabitable.