An Israeli strike on a displacement camp in the south of the Palestinian territory yesterday killed at least 71 people, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
It is the latest mass-casualty incident in the al-Mawasi area, where many Palestinians had fled, and came as international mediators pushed on with efforts to halt the war between Israel and Hamas militants.
Israel said the massive strike targeted Hamas’ military commander, but was not immediately known whether Mohammed Deif was among the dead.
Photo: AFP
Israeli officials confirmed that he and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were the targets. Hamas immediately rejected the claim.
Deif is believed by many to be the chief architect of the attack on Oct. 7 last year that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war. 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 killing threatens to derail ceasefire talks and would be seen as a major Israeli victory in the nine-month campaign.
“These false claims are merely a cover-up for the scale of the horrific massacre,” Hamas said in a statement in response to Israel.
A statement from the Gaza health ministry said there were more than “71 martyrs” and 289 people wounded in what it called a “brutal massacre by the occupation” at al-Mawasi camp.
The Israeli military said it had “additional terrorists hid among civilians” based on “precise intelligence.”
Footage of the aftermath showed charred tents, burned-out cars and household belongings scattered across the blackened earth as emergency workers and Palestinians displaced by the nine-month war searched for survivors.
Victims were carried on the hoods and in the hatchbacks of cars, and on donkey carts and carpets.
Witnesses said the strike landed inside al-Muwasi, the Israeli designated safe zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis.
The coastal strip is where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to in search of safety, sheltering mostly in makeshift tents.
“This was designated as a safe zone filled with people from the north,” said one displaced man who did not give his name. “Children were all martyred here. We collected their pieces with our hands.”
He said seven or eight missiles hit the camp and that first responders were targeted as well.
On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to donor governments to resume funding to UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
“Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in Gaza — somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell,” he said.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said later that the agency had enough funds to operate through September.
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