71 dead and 300 injured in IDF attack on Hamas leader

July 13 (UPI) – The Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike targeting the Hamas leader in al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing 71 people and wounding 300, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Health Ministry officials did not say how many of the victims were civilians or members of the military wing of Hamas, which the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

IDF officials said their target was Mohammed Deif, who heads the Hamas military’s Qassam Brigades and is accused of planning the October 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians and kidnapped 250.

The IDF also targeted Rafe Salama, the Hamas leader of the Khan Younis Brigade.

The Israeli prime minister ignored international pressure to end the war against Hamas before achieving the previously stated goals of eliminating those responsible for coordinating the October 7 attack and enabled the airstrike. Benjamin Netanyahu he told the media on Saturday.

“At the beginning of the war, I established a principle: Hamas’ murderers are dead,” Netanyahu said. “From the first to the last, we will bring them to justice.”

Eliminating Hamas leaders is one of Israel’s goals in the conflict, he said.

Other goals include the release of all hostages and the elimination of the Gaza Strip as a threat to Israel.

Achieving all of the goals “advances our goals on other fronts,” Netanyahu said. “It sends a message of deterrence to all of Iran’s proxies and to Iran itself.”

He said Iran was trying to “strangle” Israel by creating a “strangle ring of terror and rocket fire from Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the militias in Syria and Iraq and other fronts.”

IDF officials said they were currently in the process of confirming whether Deif or Salama were killed or survived the airstrike.

The International Criminal Court announced in May that it had issued arrest warrants for Deif and other Hamas leaders for organizing and carrying out the October 7 attack on Israeli civilians.

The Israeli military had previously declared al-Mawasi a safe zone for civilians. Hamas is accused of using it to protect its militants and their leaders, in violation of international law.

Al-Mawasi is located near Khan Younis. Israeli forces recently called on civilians to vacate this site as Hamas relocated many of its remaining militants through underground tunnels after fleeing Rafah.

There is no evidence that Hamas allows civilians to seek shelter in or evacuate dangerous areas using the tunnels built and used by Hamas to enable its militants to move underground throughout the Gaza Strip.