Israel says it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people including children, according to local health officials.
Hamas immediately rejected the claim that Mohammed Deif was in the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists on Saturday “there still isn’t absolute certainty” that Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were killed.
The strike took place in an area the military had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Deif and Hamas’ top official in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, are believed by Israel to be the chief architects of the October 7 attack that killed some 1200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
Not seen in public for years, Deif has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list and is believed to have escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts.
On October 7, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al Aqsa Flood” operation.
The strike came at a delicate time in ceasefire efforts.
Deif’s death would hand Israel a major victory and deal a painful psychological blow to Hamas.
It also could give Netanyahu a possible opening.
Again on Saturday, the prime minister said Israel will not end the war until Hamas’ military capabilities are destroyed, and Deif’s death would be a significant step in that direction.
All Hamas leaders are marked for death and “we will reach them all,” Netanyahu said.
He added that no hostages had been nearby when the strike occurred.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told the military to increase “operational readiness on all fronts”.
But Deif’s killing could also risk encouraging Hamas to harden its positions in talks.
He has been in hiding for more than two decades and is believed to be paralysed.
One of the only known images of him is a 30-year-old ID photo released by Israel.
Even in Gaza, only a handful of people would recognise him.
In a statement, Hamas denied that Deif had been in the area.
“These false claims are merely a cover-up for the scale of the horrific massacre,” it said.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported 90 dead and said at least 300 others were injured in the attack — one of the war’s deadliest.
Associated Press journalists counted over 40 bodies at overwhelmed Nasser Hospital nearby.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach them,” the Health Ministry said.
Witnesses said the strike landed in Muwasi, the Israeli-designated safe zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis.
Palestinians have fled to the coastal strip, sheltering mostly in sweltering tents with few basic services or supplies.
More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.
Footage of the aftermath showed a huge crater, charred tents and burnt-out cars.
Victims were carried on the hoods and in the hatchbacks of cars, and on donkey carts and carpets.
At the hospital, a baby in a pink shirt, her face covered with sand, cried while receiving first aid.
A small boy lay motionless at the other end of the bed, one shoe gone.
There was “the overwhelming stench of blood,” said Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees who visited the hospital and spoke with several patients.
The blast threw a 2-year-old child into the air and the child’s mother was still missing, Wateridge said.
Another boy had his feet blown off, while an 8-year-old boy was killed.
“They told me to go there to be safe,” his grieving mother told her of the area struck.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel and abducted about 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 Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Source Agencies
