KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel said it was aiming Hamas’s shadowy military commander in a massive attack Saturday in the populous southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 71 people, according to local health officials. Hamas immediately rejected the claim.
It was not immediately known if Mohamed Deif was among the dead. Israeli officials confirmed that he and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were the targets. A military official later said they were “still checking and verifying the outcome of the attack” and did not deny that it took place within the Israeli-designated safe zone.
Deif is believed by many to be the main architect of the October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked the War between Israel and Hamas. He has topped Israel’s most wanted list for years and is believed to have escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts in the past.
His potential assassination threatens to derail ceasefire talks and would be seen as a major Israeli victory in the nine-month campaign.
“These false claims are simply a cover-up of the scale of the horrific massacre,” Hamas said in a statement responding to Israel.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least another 289 people were wounded in the attack, one of the deadliest of the war, and that many dead and wounded were taken to the overwhelmed Nasser Hospital nearby. There, Associated Press journalists counted more than 40 bodies. Witnesses described an attack that included several blows.
“Several victims remain under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense teams cannot reach them,” the Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military claimed that “other terrorists hid among civilians” and described the site of the attack as an area surrounded by trees, several buildings and sheds.
Images of the aftermath showed a huge crater, charred tents, burned cars and household belongings scattered across the blackened land as emergency workers and Palestinians displaced by the war searched for survivors. Victims were transported on the hoods and hatchbacks of cars, in donkey carts, and on rugs.
Witnesses said the attack fell inside Muwasi, the Israeli-designated safe zone that extends from Rafah north to Khan Younis. The coastal strip is where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled in search of safety, taking refuge mainly in suffocating, makeshift tents with few services.
“This was designated as a safe zone filled with people from the north,” said a displaced Palestinian who did not give his name. “Here all the children were martyred. We picked up its pieces with our hands.” He estimated there were seven or eight missiles and claimed that first responders were also targeted.
According to an Israeli official, the attack took place inside a fenced area of Khan Younis run by Hamas, but he did not elaborate on the exact location, saying it was not a tent complex but an operational complex. . The official described the attack as precise and said many of the victims were estimated to be “terrorists.”
Deif has been in hiding for more than two decades and is believed to be paralyzed. One of the only known images of him is a 30-year-old identification photograph released by Israel. Even in Gaza, only a handful of people would recognize him.
Meanwhile, American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators continue to push to narrow gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed deal for a three-phase ceasefire and hostage release plan in Gaza.
The US-backed proposal calls for an initial ceasefire with a limited release of hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas of Gaza. At the same time, the two sides will negotiate the terms of the second phase, which is supposed to bring the full release of the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas attack on October 7 in which militants stormed southern Israel and kidnapped around 250 people.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and shelling have killed more than 38,400 people in Gaza and injured more than 88,000, according to the territory’s report. Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
More than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, and most are now crowded into squalid tent camps, facing widespread hunger.
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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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