THE home of a top Hamas leader has been blown to pieces by Israeli fighter jets.
Dramatic footage shows the blast ripping through Ismail Haniyeh’s house in Gaza as it burst into a fireball.
IDFFootage shows the house being blasted from the air[/caption]
ReutersIsmail Haniyeh pictured meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in June[/caption]
Haniyeh has lived in Qatar for several – but the IDF said the property was being used as a “meeting place” for the terror group’s senior officials.
The terror chief is the chairman of Hamas‘ political bureau – and is widely considered its overall leader.
But the dad-of-13, who is understood to have a net worth of more than £2.4 billion, has been in hiding since 2019.
The IDF said: “Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau.
“The residence was used as terrorist infrastructure and a meeting point for Hamas’ senior leaders to direct terrorist attacks against Israel.”
Haniyeh was previously seen celebrating the horror October 7 massacre with other Hamas top brass from Doha.
Dozens of terrorists stormed across the border on hand gliders and motorbikes before slaughtering more than 1,000 Israelis.
Haniyeh insisted Hamas was on the “verge of a great victory” as he hailed the brutal attack as he warned the bloodshed would expand to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
He said: “Enough is enough, the cycle of intifadas and revolutions in the battle to liberate our Palestinian land and our prisoners languishing in occupation prisons must be completed.”
Haniyeh was imprisoned by Israel for three years in 1989 before being exiled in 1992 to no-man’s-land between Israel and Lebanon.
He returned to Gaza a year later and was promoted within Hamas in 1997.
In 2006, he was appointed Palestinian prime minister – a decision that was dismissed just a year later after Hamas was ousted by President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party.
Haniyeh was designated a terrorist by the US in 2018 – a year after he was made head of Hamas’ political bureau.
This week, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Haniyeh that Iran – a longtime backer of Hamas – would not enter the war on the terror’s group behalf.
Khamenei blasted Hamas for giving “no warning” for the October 7 attack but said Iran would continue to lend the group its political and moral support.
It comes after Israel yesterday blew up a Gaza government building just days after vowing there was “no hiding” place for the terror group.
Dramatic footage showed an explosion at the building before it became engulfed in a raging blaze, sending thick plumes of smoke into the sky.