The Israeli military has said Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, was the target of the attack in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, which killed 90 people and wounded hundreds more, according to Gaza emergency services.
Deif, 58, who has been on Israel’s most wanted list since 1995 and has evaded multiple Israeli assassination attempts, is believed to be the mastermind behind attacks that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked war between Israel and Hamas.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said another Hamas official, Rafa Salama, was also targeted in the attack, but did not provide details on whether the two were killed.
A military official later said “the results of the attack are still being verified,” but did not deny that it took place inside an area the Israeli military has designated safe for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
“Based on accurate intelligence, the Air Force and Southern Command struck two major targets of the Hamas terrorist organization as well as an area where other terrorists were hiding among civilians,” a joint statement released by the IDF and the Shin Bet intelligence agency said. “The area attacked was an open wooded area with several buildings and huts.”
“We have no conclusive proof yet that their plans have been thwarted, but one way or another they will undoubtedly reach the top of Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Hamas deputy leader Khalil al-Hayya told Al Jazeera television that Deif was not killed in the attack, and addressed Netanyahu, saying: “Deif is now listening to you and laughing at your lies.”
The Gaza Strip Health Ministry said on Saturday that Israel had attacked a displaced persons camp in Khan Yunis, killing at least 90 Palestinians and wounding 289. Residents said they saw at least five “heavy fighter jets bombing the middle of the Al-Mawasi neighborhood, west of Khan Yunis.”
Most of the injured were taken to Nasser Hospital, but officials and doctors said the hospital was “overwhelmed by the number of injured and can no longer function.”
Hamas says Israel’s claims that it targeted the leader of the Palestinian militant group are “false” and aimed at “justifying” the attack.
The Israeli military said the attack on Deif took place in a “fenced Hamas area” where the majority of people present were militants.
Earlier, a senior Hamas official called Israel’s claims “nonsense.” “All the martyrs are civilians and what has happened is a major escalation of a genocidal war backed by American support and global silence,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding that the attack showed Israel was not interested in a ceasefire agreement. He declined to confirm whether Deif was present.
The target of the attack is Nous Street, which is home to more than 80,000 people who have fled from across Gaza.
According to witnesses, ambulances and civil defense forces were targeted after the airstrikes, with numerous Israeli planes hovering “and directly firing or targeting ambulances and rescue teams as they arrived.”
“The number of casualties continues to rise as bodies are still being retrieved from beneath the rubble,” Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
“Rescue teams are still working to evacuate dozens of martyrs and wounded from the sites of the bombings and attacks,” Gaza’s government information office said in a statement. “The massacre is taking place in a combination of a lack of hospitals to accommodate the large number of martyrs and wounded, and the destruction of the Gaza Strip’s medical system by the occupying forces.”
Known as “The Guest,” Deif has not been seen in public for years, frequently changing locations to evade Israeli investigations. A former science student who was involved with Hamas from a young age, Deif orchestrated a series of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in the 1990s and another one a decade later.
Speculation has it that Deif may have been maimed in one of a number of Israeli assassination attempts; his wife and young children were killed in an airstrike in 2014.
Deif, who has been dubbed “the dying man” by Israeli authorities, has a real name of Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.
On October 7, Hamas released a rare audio recording of Deif announcing operation “Flooding Al-Aqsa.”
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath television station reported that Salama, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigades, was killed in the attack and Deif was seriously wounded.
Deif’s death would be a major victory for Israel and a potentially devastating blow to Hamas. Netanyahu has made it clear he intends to continue the war until Hamas’ military power is destroyed, and Deif’s death would be a major step in that direction, giving the operation a potential advantage.
Saturday’s attack came as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators are actively working to close the gap between Israel and Hamas with a proposed three-phase ceasefire and hostage release plan.
The talks were called off after three days of intense negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome, two Egyptian security sources said on Saturday, accusing Israel of lacking a sincere intention to reach an agreement.
The source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli mediator’s actions revealed “internal discord”.
The sources said the Israeli delegation would approve some of the conditions under discussion but would then propose amendments or new conditions that could send the talks crashing down.
The mediators viewed “the inconsistencies, the delay in responses and the introduction of new conditions that contradict previous agreements” as a sign that the Israelis view the talks as a formality aimed at influencing public opinion, the source said.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday accused Netanyahu of trying to thwart a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict with a “brutal massacre.”
Haniyeh said in a statement that Hamas had responded “positively and responsible” to the new proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange, but that “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Israeli position was to put up obstacles preventing an agreement from being reached.”
