According to Hamas Health Ministry, 90 people were killed in Israeli attack on military chief

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 90 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a designated humanitarian area.

According to the Health Ministry’s statement, around 300 people were injured in the attack, which Israel said was directed against Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and his deputy Rafa Salama.

In a press conference on Saturday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no certainty” that any of them had been killed.

The attack hit the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli military has declared a humanitarian zone.

An eyewitness in al-Mawasi told the BBC that the site of the impact looked as if an “earthquake” had occurred there.

Videos from the area show smoldering rubble and bleeding victims being loaded onto stretchers.

You can see people desperately trying to search through the rubble of a large crater with their hands.

BBC Verify has analyzed footage of the aftermath of the attack and confirmed that it took place in an area designated as a humanitarian zone on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website.

Mr Netanyahu said he gave the order to carry out the operation after being informed by his general security forces.

He wanted to know whether there were any hostages nearby, how much collateral damage there was and what kind of weapons would be used.

During the press conference, he promised to eliminate all high-ranking members of the group.

“One way or another, we will reach the entire Hamas leadership,” Netanyahu added.

Later, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, quoted by the AFP news agency, accused Netanyahu of trying to prevent a ceasefire in the Gaza war with “heinous massacres”.

Hamas said the claim that its leaders were targeted was “false”.

“This is not the first time that Israel has claimed to target Palestinian leaders, which later turns out to be false,” the group said in a statement.

An Israeli military official said the attack took place in an “open area” where there were “no civilians.”

He declined to say whether it was a designated security zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” settled in a civilian area.

The official also said he was not aware of any hostages taken during the October 7 attack on Israel being held in the area.

He added that “accurate intelligence” had been collected before the “precision strike.”

One of the doctors at a hospital dealing with the aftermath of the attack told the BBC that it was “one of those black days”.

In an interview with Newshour on the BBC World Service, Dr Mohammed Abu Rayya said the majority of those admitted were fatalities, while others had suffered numerous shrapnel injuries.

He said it was like “hell,” adding that many of the victims were civilians, mostly women and children.

Footage from the nearby field hospital in Kuwait showed chaotic scenes of patients being treated on the ward.

The Nasser health complex in Khan Younis is “overwhelmed” and no longer functional, said the British aid organization Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Who is Mohammed Deif?

Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, is one of Israel’s most wanted men.

He enjoys almost mythical status in Gaza after escaping capture and surviving several assassination attempts, including one in 2002 in which he lost an eye.

He was arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1989 and subsequently founded the Brigades with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.

Israel accuses him of planning and overseeing bus bombings that killed dozens of Israelis in 1996. He is also accused of being involved in the capture and killing of three Israeli soldiers in the mid-1990s.

He is believed to have been one of the masterminds of the October 7 Hamas attack in which some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 others taken hostage to Gaza.

It led to the major Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, in which over 38,400 Palestinians were killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

A Hamas official quoted by Reuters described Saturday’s attack as a “serious escalation” that showed that Israel had no interest in a ceasefire.

The ceasefire negotiations in Qatar and Egypt ended unsuccessfully on Friday, according to BBC information.

The Hamas-run civil defense agency in the Gaza Strip said that in another incident, 17 people were killed in an Israeli attack west of Gaza.

The attack is said to have targeted a prayer hall in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. The Israeli military has not yet commented on this claim.