At least 17 Palestinians killed in latest attack on Gaza City, authorities say | Israel-Gaza War

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded in a fresh Israeli attack on Gaza City, rescue workers and health officials said, as Hamas reportedly pulled out of ceasefire negotiations.

The attacks in the early hours of Sunday morning came less than 24 hours after Israeli forces said Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, the mastermind of the October 7 attack on southern Israel, was the target of a strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza that the territory’s emergency services said killed more than 90 people and wounded 300 others.

At least four separate Israeli airstrikes targeted homes in different parts of the city on Sunday.

Deif, 58, who has been on Israel’s most wanted list since 1995 and has escaped several Israeli assassination attempts, is considered the main architect of the attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Rafa Salama, another senior Hamas official, was also targeted in the strike.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “There is still no conclusive certainty that both attempts were foiled, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the summit of Hamas.”

Hamas deputy leader Khalil al-Hayya told Al Jazeera television that Deif was not killed in the strikes and, addressing Netanyahu, said: “Deif is listening to you right now and laughing at your lies.”

Another Hamas official told AFP that the group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, was “fine” and working despite the massive Israeli bomb.

Deif, known as “The Guest,” frequently moved to avoid Israeli detection. Enlisted in Hamas at a young age, the former science student orchestrated a series of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians in the 1990s and again a decade later.

On October 7, Hamas released a rare voice recording of Deif announcing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Gaza’s health ministry said the Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Khan Younis killed at least 92 Palestinians and wounded more than 300 others. Residents said they saw at least five “large warplanes bombing the middle of the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis.”

Hamas has said Israeli accusations that the Palestinian group’s leaders were targeted were “false” and aimed at “justifying” the attack. A senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse on Sunday that the Palestinian group had withdrawn from negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza war because of what he called Israeli “massacres” and its attitude in the negotiations.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Saturday that negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza had broken down after three days of intense talks that failed to produce a viable outcome, accusing Israel of having “no real intention of reaching an agreement.” The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the behavior of Israeli mediators revealed “internal discord.”

Hours earlier, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Mr. Netanyahu of seeking to block an agreement to end the war with “heinous massacres.” He said Hamas had shown “a positive and responsible response” to new ceasefire and prisoner exchange proposals, but that “the Israeli position adopted by Mr. Netanyahu was to place obstacles that prevent an agreement from being reached,” Mr. Haniyeh said in a statement.

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets across the country over the weekend, accusing Mr Netanyahu of sabotaging the negotiations. The protesters included families of hostages, who made a symbolic march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Relatives of those still held captive in Gaza by Hamas fear that the recent escalation of bombings in the Gaza Strip could jeopardize the safe return of their loved ones.

“In light of recent events in the Gaza Strip, the families of the hostages remind Prime Minister Netanyahu that there can be no victory until the 120 hostages return home,” read a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “The proposed agreement is in its final stages. We have been waiting for it for 282 days. Time is running out, there is not a minute to lose.”