KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said it has targeted Hamas’ mysterious military commander A massive strike took place in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, which left at least 71 people dead, according to local health authorities. Hamas immediately rejected the claim that Mohammed Deif has been targeted.
It is not yet clear whether Deif was among the casualties. Israeli officials confirmed that he and another Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were the targets. A military official later said they were “still verifying the outcome of the strike” and did not deny that it took place inside Israel’s designated security zone.
Deif is widely considered the main architect of the October 7 attack that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked the War between Israel and Hamas. The second most senior Hamas official in Gaza, Yahya SinwarHe has topped Israel’s most wanted list for years and is believed to have escaped several Israeli assassination attempts in the past.
If Deif is killed, ceasefire negotiations could be disrupted by what would be seen as a major Israeli victory in the nine-month war.
“These false statements are only a means to conceal the scale of this horrific massacre,” Hamas said in a statement responding to Israel.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 289 others were wounded in the attack, one of the deadliest of the war, and many of the dead and wounded were taken to the nearby, overwhelmed Nasser hospital. Associated Press reporters at the scene counted more than 40 bodies. Witnesses described an attack that included multiple strikes.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil protection teams are unable to reach them,” the Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said “other terrorists were hiding among civilians” and described the location of the strike as an area surrounded by trees, several buildings and hangars.
Images taken after the tragedy show a huge crater, charred tents, burned cars and belongings scattered on the blackened earth. The victims were transported on car bonnets and tailgates, on donkey carts and on carpets.
Witnesses said the strike hit Muwasi, the Israeli security zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis. It is in this coastal strip where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled in search of safety, many sheltering in stifling makeshift tents with few services.
“This area was designated as a safe zone, filled with people from the north,” said a displaced Palestinian who did not give his name. “Children all died here. We picked up their pieces with our hands.” He estimated there were seven or eight missiles and said first responders were also targeted.
At the hospital, a baby in a pink T-shirt, his face covered in sand, cried as he was given first aid. A little boy lay motionless at the other end of the bed, missing a shoe. The victims lay on the floor amid blood spatters, their bodies wrapped in white plastic with their names scrawled in marker.
An Israeli official said the strike was carried out in a fenced-off area of Hamas-controlled Khan Younis, but did not specify the precise location, saying it was not a tent compound but an operational compound. The official called the strike precise and said he believed many of the casualties were “terrorists.”
Deif has been living in hiding for more than twenty years and is reportedly paralyzed. One of the only known images of him is a thirty-year-old ID photo released by Israel. Even in Gaza, only a handful of people would recognize him.
Meanwhile, American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators continue to push to narrow the gap between Israel and Hamas over a proposed three-phase ceasefire agreement and a plan to release hostages in Gaza.
The proposal, backed by the United States, calls for an initial ceasefire with a limited release of hostages and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas of Gaza. At the same time, the two sides will negotiate the terms of the second phase, which is supposed to entail a full release of the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after The Hamas attack of October 7 in which militants stormed southern Israel and abducted around 250 people.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,400 people in Gaza and wounded more than 88,000, according to the territory’s Defense Ministry. The Ministry of HealthThe ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and most are now crammed into squalid tent camps, facing widespread starvation.
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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Reporting by Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; and Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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