Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in a series of Israeli air strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip. Officials said the attacks targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
Israeli officials said Deif and another senior Hamas commander, Rafa’a Salameh, were the targets of the attack. They did not confirm whether Deif was killed.
“We are still reviewing and verifying the results of the attack,” a senior Israeli military official said, adding that there was “very accurate intelligence confirming” that the two were at the site of the above-ground attack.
Other Hamas members may also have been present, presumably to protect the two senior leaders, the official added.
Health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said more than 70 people had been killed and nearly 300 injured. Several rescue workers were among the dead, they said. Local hospitals were overwhelmed by the flood of injured.
Israeli officials said Deif and Salameh were in a fenced-in and relatively isolated “operational area” of small buildings and sheds on the western outskirts of Khan Younis, bordering what Israel calls the Al-Mawasi humanitarian “safe zone.”
In recent weeks, Israel has expanded the so-called “security zone” to include parts of Khan Younis. It was unclear on Saturday whether this also includes the site of the suspected Hamas complex.
“If Hamas thinks it can set up a base in this area and we will not attack it … then it is mistaken,” the Israeli military official said.
According to a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defense on site, the air strikes targeted both a cluster of tents housing displaced people and a separate house some distance away.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in the Al-Mawasi region on the Mediterranean coast on the orders of the Israeli military.
Videos from the scene showed huge clouds of smoke rising into the air and at least one massive crater as medical personnel and civilians tried to evacuate the injured.
In a statement, Hamas strongly denied that Deif had been killed, calling the killing a “lie” and “false allegations” aimed at “covering up the extent of the brutal massacre.”
“We went to the site and saw children, women and men who had been torn to pieces. The tents caught fire and burned down. They used bombs so powerful that the bodies were buried underground,” said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for civil defense.
Israeli officials “estimated” that most of the reported victims “were also terrorists who were with Deif and Salameh.” Israel is “currently not aware” of Hamas holding its own hostages in the area, they added.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli prime minister had given “standing orders to eliminate the Hamas leadership” at the start of the war. The office added that Netanyahu would summon his security chiefs and diplomatic advisers later in the day for an update.
If the accusation is confirmed, Deif, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Qassam Brigades, would be the group’s highest-ranking official killed so far in the war, which is now in its tenth month.
Two Hamas brigade commanders were killed in the early stages of the conflict, and Deif’s longtime deputy, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza in March.
Deif is considered the mastermind of the group’s October 7 attack that sparked the war. Along with Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, he was Israel’s main target. Sinwar is still at large.
Deif, whose nom de guerre means “guest” and refers to his ability to evade Israeli forces for years, has previously survived several assassination attempts dating back more than two decades.
For years, Israeli intelligence believed he was partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair, missing an arm and a leg. But in January, Israel released previously unseen photos of Deif taken in Gaza that show him physically unharmed.
Additional reporting by Heba Saleh in Cairo
