Israel attacks Hamas military chief – Palestinian authorities assume at least 70 dead

CNN

By Abeer Salman, Ibrahim Dahman, Niamh Kennedy, Benjamin Brown, Sophie Tanno and Jeremy Diamond, CNN

(CNN) — Israel said it had targeted the Hamas military chief and a suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks in the southern Gaza Strip in which local authorities said at least 71 Palestinians were killed.

An Israeli security official told CNN that Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, was attacked on Saturday in Al-Mawasi, a refugee camp west of the city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said the move was part of an investigation into whether Deif was killed in the attack, which was carried out along with Khan Younis Brigade chief Rafe Salama.

The attack left scenes of devastation in the region, with Gaza’s Health Ministry reporting that at least 71 people were killed and nearly 300 injured.

The attacks hit an area where displaced people had sought shelter, the ministry said. Videos from the scene show locals and rescue teams trying to rescue several people who are still trapped.

Al-Mawasi has been declared a safe zone by Israel for Palestinians fleeing the raging fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The local hospitals in Kuwait and Nasser are currently struggling to cope with the large number of dead and injured civilians admitted, the ministry said.

Hamas denied Israeli claims that it targeted Deif and Salama and called the killings a “horrific massacre.”

“The occupying power’s claims that it is targeting Palestinian politicians are false, and this is not the first time that the occupying power has claimed that it is targeting Palestinian politicians only to expose its lies later,” it said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been receiving ongoing updates on the Israeli attack on Deif, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Netanyahu will conduct a situation assessment with Israeli security forces later on Saturday to discuss further steps, the PMO said.

Little is known about Deif. Believed to have been born in the 1960s, Deif is a bomb maker who was responsible for a wave of four suicide bombings in 1996 that killed 65 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as other atrocities that were intended to derail the peace process.

His full name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, but he became known as El Deif (the guest) because for decades he slept in a different house every night to avoid being tracked down and killed by Israel.

Deif has been the target of Israeli assassinations before. His wife, seven-month-old son and three-year-old daughter were killed in an Israeli attack in 2014.

In May, the International Criminal Court said it was requesting arrest warrants for Deif and other senior Hamas figures because there were “sufficient grounds” to believe they were responsible for the October 7 attacks that killed around 1,200 Israelis.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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