- author, Rushdi Abu Al-Auf, Tom McArthur and Lucy Clark Billings
- Role, BBC News
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The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 90 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a designated humanitarian zone.
A statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that about 300 people were injured in the attack, which Israel says targeted senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Rafeh Salama.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference on Saturday evening that there was “no certainty” that either of them had been killed.
The raid hit the Al-Mawasi area near Khan Yunis, which the Israeli army declared a humanitarian zone.
An eyewitness in Al Mawasi told the BBC that the site of the strike looked like an “earthquake” had struck the area.
Videos from the area showed burning wreckage and bloodied victims being loaded onto stretchers.
The photo shows people desperately trying to pick up debris from a large hole with their hands.
BBC Verify analysed footage of the aftermath of the strike, and confirmed that it occurred in an area shown on the IDF website as a humanitarian zone.
Netanyahu said he gave the order to carry out the operation after being briefed by the General Security Forces.
He said he wanted to know if there were any hostages nearby, the extent of collateral damage, and what types of weapons would be used.
During the press conference, he promised to eliminate all senior members of the group.
“In any case, we will reach the entire Hamas leadership,” Netanyahu added.
Later, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to Agence France-Presse, accused Netanyahu of seeking to derail the ceasefire in the Gaza war through “horrific massacres.”
Hamas said the claim that its leaders were targeted was “false.”
The group said in a statement, “This is not the first time that Israel has claimed to target Palestinian leaders, only to later be proven to be a lie.”
An Israeli military official said the strike took place in an “open area” where “there were no civilians.”
He declined to say whether the attack was inside a designated safe zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” staged the attack in a civilian area.
The official added that he was not aware of any hostages taken during the October 7 attack on Israel in the area.
He added that “precise intelligence” was gathered before the “precision strike.”
One doctor at the hospital dealing with the aftermath of the attack told the BBC that it was “one of the dark days”.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Riya told the BBC World Service’s News Hour program that most of the cases that arrived at the hospital were dead, while others suffered multiple shrapnel wounds.
It was like “hell,” he said, adding that many of the victims were civilians, especially women and children.
Footage from the nearby Kuwait field hospital showed scenes of chaos as patients were being treated on the floor.
The British Medical Aid for Palestinians said the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis had become “overcrowded” and unable to function.
Who is Mohammed Al-Deif?
Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, is one of Israel’s most wanted men.
He was arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1989, after which he formed the battalions with the aim of kidnapping Israeli soldiers.
Israel accuses him of planning and supervising bus bombings that killed dozens of Israelis in 1996, and of involvement in the capture and killing of three Israeli soldiers in the mid-1990s.
He is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the Hamas attack on October 7, in which some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners – most of them civilians – were killed and 251 others were taken hostage to Gaza.
This led to a major Israeli military operation in Gaza that killed more than 38,400 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Reuters news agency quoted a Hamas official as saying that Saturday’s attack was a “dangerous escalation” that showed that Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Ceasefire negotiations in Qatar and Egypt ended without a result on Friday, the BBC has learned.
Hamas’s civil defense agency in Gaza said 17 people were killed in a separate incident in an Israeli airstrike west of Gaza.
The attack was said to have targeted a prayer hall in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, and the Israeli military has not commented on the claim so far.
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