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At least 71 people have been killed in a massive strike on a designated humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas-run health officials have said, as Israel suggested the missile was aimed at the militant group’s elusive chief.
Witnesses said the strike landed inside Mawasi, the Israeli-designated safe zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis, the two main cities in the southern half of the enclave.
The Mawasi coastal strip is where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to in search of safety, sheltering mostly in makeshift tents, as Israeli forces make their way through the enclave for a second time since the start of the war last October.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 289 others were injured in the attack and that many of the injured and dead were taken to nearby Nasser Hospital.
Footage of the aftermath showed charred tents, burnt-out cars and household belongings scattered across the blackened earth as emergency workers and Palestinians displaced by the nine-month war searched for survivors.
Israel has claimed that the strikes were targeting Hamas’ military commander Mohammed Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama. An official added that there were “only Hamas terrorists and no civilians”.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold security talks throughout the day, his office said according to Reuters.
Deif is believed by many to be the chief architect of the 7 October attack that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the ensuing war in Gaza. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed during the subsequent months of Israel’s aerial bombardment of and ground offensives in the Gaza Strip.
Deif has topped Israel’s most-wanted list for years and is believed to have escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts in the past. His potential killing threatens to derail ceasefire talks and would be seen as a major Israeli victory in the nine-month campaign.
But Hamas rejected the claim made by Israel. “This is not the first time that the occupation has claimed to target Palestinian leaders, and their lies were later proven to be false,” the group said in a post on X/Twitter.
Jihad Taha, a Hamas spokesperson in Beirut, added that the claim that Deif was the target of the strike is a “baseless statement” and “comes in the context of justifying and covering up the crimes and massacres”.