- author, Rushdie Abu’alouf, Tom MacArthur, Lucy Clark Billings
- role, BBC News
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The Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said at least 90 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on designated humanitarian areas.
Israel said about 300 people were wounded in the attack, which targeted Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and his deputy Rafa Salama, according to a health ministry statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference on Saturday evening that he was “not certain” whether the two men had been killed.
The airstrikes hit the al-Mawasi area near Khan Yunis, which the Israeli military has designated a humanitarian zone.
An eyewitness from Al Mawashi told the BBC it looked like an “earthquake” had hit the scene.
Footage from the scene showed smoldering wreckage and bloody wounded being loaded onto stretchers.
People can be seen frantically trying to pick up debris from the large crater by hand.
BBC Verification analysed footage of the aftermath of the attack and confirmed that it took place in an area described on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian aid area.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said he gave the order to carry out the operation after being briefed by security forces.
He said he wanted to know whether there were any hostages nearby, the extent of collateral damage and what weapons might be used.
At a press conference he promised to eradicate all of the group’s leaders.
“In any case, we will capture the entire Hamas leadership,” Netanyahu added.
Later, AFP quoted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as accusing Netanyahu of trying to block a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict with a “brutal massacre”.
Hamas said claims that its leaders were being targeted were “false.”
“This is not the first time that Israel has claimed to have targeted a Palestinian leader in a claim that later proved false,” the group said in a statement.
An Israeli military official said the attack took place in an “open area” that was “free of civilians.”
He declined to say whether it was inside a designated safe zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” taken up positions in civilian areas.
The official also said he did not know whether there were any hostages held in the area during the October 7 Israeli attack.
He added that “precise intelligence” had been collected before the “precision attack”.
One doctor at the hospital responding to the aftermath of the attack told the BBC that it was “one of our dark days”.
Dr Mohammed Abu Raya told the BBC World Service’s Newshour that most of the patients who had been rushed to the hospital had died, while others had suffered multiple shrapnel wounds.
He described it as “hell”, adding that many of the victims were civilians, particularly women and children.
Footage from a nearby Kuwaiti field hospital showed scenes of chaos with patients being treated on the floor.
British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said the Nasser medical facility in Khan Yunis was “overwhelmed” and could no longer function.
Who is Mohammed Deif?
Mohammed Deif, leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, is one of Israel’s most wanted fugitives.
He was imprisoned by Israeli authorities in 1989 and later formed a brigade with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.
Israel accuses him of planning and orchestrating a bus bombing that killed dozens of Israelis in 1996, as well as of being involved in the capture and killing of three Israeli soldiers in the mid-1990s.
He is believed to be one of the masterminds behind the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza.
The attack prompted Israeli forces to launch a major military operation in the Gaza Strip that has left more than 38,400 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
A Hamas official quoted by Reuters said Saturday’s attack was a “major escalation” and showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Ceasefire talks between Qatar and Egypt ended without result on Friday, the BBC reported.
In a separate incident, the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run civil defence agency said 17 people were killed in an Israeli attack in the western Gaza Strip.
The attack is said to have targeted a prayer hall in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the claim.
