Israeli Defense Minister threatens to eliminate Hamas leader

O israel's Defense Minister today warned that Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya will suffer the same fate as his predecessors, killed in Israeli attacks, despite the ceasefire in force in Gaza a year ago.

“ We eliminated Hamas leaders in Gaza. Al-Hayya’s turn will also come, and he will join Haniyeh and his goons in the depths of hell,” Katz threatened on social networks.

The Israeli minister criticized Turkey’s leaders for continuing to support the “murderers and rapists of Hamas” in a message accompanied by three photographs.

One dates back to 2024 and shows a meeting between the former political leader of Hamas Ismael Haniyeh, killed in the same year in an attack on Israel in Tehran, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Another photo, dated July 2026, shows al-Hayya and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, and the third is a photo montage depicting the “gates of hell”, between volcanic rocks and lava, accompanied by the Hebrew legend “2027: Haniyeh-al-Hayya Meeting”.

“Erdogan continues to spread the red carpet to these criminals and to support terrorist activities orchestrating from Turkey, together with the Muslim Brotherhood, against Israel and important Muslim nations in the region,” Katz criticized.

In August, Israel warned Turkey that it would not allow the Turkish military to increase its presence in Syria the day after Israel bombed an air base in the north of the country, on the grounds of the alleged presence of an Ankara delegation.

Turkey has been one of the most critical countries of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, and has also acted as a mediator in the ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian enclave, in force since 10 October 2025.

Israel and Hamas have exchanged accusations of violations of the truce since then and Israeli attacks have been almost daily, while negotiations for the next stages of the peace process, on a roadmap proposed by the United States, remain at a standstill.

In a joint statement today in the Israeli press, the army and the internal security service (Shin Bet) announced that they destroyed Hamas military infrastructure in several attacks on the Gaza Strip over the last day, including three weapons deposits, a rocket launch site and a surveillance command center.

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attacks led by the Islamist Hamas group on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people died and 251 were taken hostage.

In retaliation, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the enclave, which caused more than 74,000 deaths, according to local authorities controlled by Hamas, a humanitarian disaster, the destruction of almost all the infrastructure in the territory and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

Since the beginning of the current ceasefire, the Gaza Strip authorities have counted more than 1,400 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks.