An Israeli airstrike killed at least 71 Palestinians in a humanitarian zone in Gaza on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
It is not yet known for certain whether Deif was killed. “We are still verifying the results of the attack,” an Israeli military official told reporters.
The Islamic militant group Hamas said in a statement that Israeli claims that the attack on military leaders was false and done only to justify it, one of the bloodiest in recent weeks.
Homeless people occupying the area said their tents were destroyed by the force of the attack, describing body parts strewn across the ground.
“I couldn’t tell where I was or what was happening,” said Sheikh Youssef, a Gaza City resident who is currently homeless in the Al-Mawasi area. “I came out of the tent and looked around, all the tents had collapsed, there were body parts everywhere, old women on the floor, children in pieces,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military said the Deif attack also targeted Rafa Salama, the commander of the Hamas Khan Younis Brigade, and that they were the masterminds of the October 7 attacks that sparked the war in Gaza.
Deif has escaped seven Israeli assassination attempts, most recently in 2021, and has topped the country’s most wanted list for decades, accused of dozens of Israeli deaths in suicide attacks.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 71 Palestinians were killed in the attack and 289 were injured. Al-Mawasi has been designated a humanitarian zone and the Israeli military has repeatedly called on Palestinians to move there after demanding withdrawal from other areas in the region.
Reuters footage showed ambulances racing through the region amid clouds of smoke and dust. Homeless people, including women and children, fled in panic, some carrying their belongings.
The Israeli military released an aerial photo of the area, which Reuters could not immediately verify, in which it said there were “terrorists hiding among civilians.”
An Israeli military official said the area was not a tent city for displaced people but a Hamas operational outpost and that there were many other militants protecting Deif.
Many of those wounded in the attack, including women and children, were taken to nearby Nasser Hospital, whose officials say it is overwhelmed and “no longer able to function” due to the intensity of the Israeli offensive and a lack of medical supplies.
“The hospital is full of patients, full of wounded and we have no beds for people,” said Atef al-Hout, the hospital’s director, noting that it is the only hospital still operating in southern Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was holding special meetings, according to his ministry, because of “the events in Gaza.” It is not yet clear how the attack will affect ceasefire discussions in Doha and Cairo.
ATTACK HIT QUIET AREA, WITNESSES SAY
The Hamas-run press office said at least 100 people were killed and wounded in the attack, including members of the civil emergency services.
A senior Hamas official would not confirm whether Deif was present and called the Israeli accusations “absurd.”
“All the martyrs are civilians and what happened is an intensification of the genocidal war waged with the support of the United States and global silence,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding that the attack made it clear that Israel had no interest in a halt to the fire.
Elsewhere on Saturday, at least 17 Palestinians were killed in another Israeli attack on a prayer hall in western Gaza City, according to Palestinian Health Ministry officials.
Witnesses said the attack on Khan Younis was surprising as it is a quiet area, confirming that more rockets were fired. Some of the evacuated wounded worked in emergency services, they said.
“They’re all gone, my whole family… Where are my brothers, they’re all gone. There’s no one left,” a woman said in tears, without giving her name.
Source: Terra
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