Israel said Saturday it had targeted two senior Hamas leaders, including its military chief, in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement has reported 90 deaths in an Israeli strike on a displacement camp.
The Israeli army claimed to have targeted Mohammed Deif and Rafa Salama, respectively head of the armed wing and commander in Khan Younis of Hamas, presented as “two masterminds of the massacre of October 7”, the date of the unprecedented attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
“There is no certainty that they have both been eliminated,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said. “In recent weeks, we have identified clear cracks within Hamas […] Today’s operation also contributes to this, whatever the outcome,” he added.
The elusive Mohammed Deif had announced in a recording released by Hamas on the morning of October 7 the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Before Saturday’s strike, he had escaped at least six known assassination attempts.
“The elimination of Hamas leaders advances the achievement of all our goals,” Netanyahu said. “This sends a message of deterrence to all of Iran’s proxies and to Iran itself.”
“No safe place”
In the area of the strike, near Khan Younis in the south of the territory, the Hamas government’s health ministry announced that 90 Palestinians had been killed “half of them women and children” and 300 wounded in an airstrike on the al-Mawasi displacement camp, revising upwards a previous death toll of at least 71.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
A view of the Al-Mawasi displaced persons camp
This area had been designated by Israel as a “humanitarian zone.”
“The strike was carried out in a fenced area run by Hamas where, according to our information, only Hamas terrorists were present, and no civilians,” the army said, estimating that “most of the victims were terrorists.”
Hamas said the Israeli statements were aimed “at masking the scale of the horrific massacre.”
“There was a drone strike, then three missiles,” said Mahmoud Abou Akar in the hit al-Mawasi camp.
“There are people who have lost legs or arms everywhere, it’s an inconceivable scene,” describes Mahmoud Chahine, in tears.
According to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, around 1.5 million people are in the al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis and further south in Rafah.
“The claim that Gaza residents can move to ‘safe’ or ‘humanitarian’ areas is false,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told X. In Gaza, “no place is safe. No one is safe,” he stressed.
PHOTO EYAD BABA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A woman reacts to the remains of a family member outside the morgue of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the health facilities to which the wounded were transported after an Israeli strike on the Al-Mawasi displacement camp.
After months of international calls for a ceasefire, the tone is also rising in Israel against the government, with three demonstrations in the evening, two in Tel Aviv and one in Jerusalem, against the government and to demand an agreement for the release of the hostages.
“25 toilets for 14,000 people”
The war broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and launched an offensive that has so far killed 38,443 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry.
The Israeli army is also continuing its operations in the city of Gaza (North), where more than a hundred bodies were discovered Thursday and Friday in areas where violent fighting had raged, according to the Civil Defense.
The Palestinian Civil Defense reported 20 deaths on Saturday in a strike on the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on this information.
The humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory is dire: in a school in Deir el-Balah, 14,000 displaced Gazans are sharing 25 toilets, UNRWA reported on Saturday.
PHOTO EYAD BABA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Palestinian boy stands inside a house hit by Israeli shelling in Deir el-Balah on July 13.
“Positive trend”
On the diplomatic front, efforts for a truce under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States continue.
US President Joe Biden said Friday that the “framework” of the ceasefire plan he unveiled on May 31 had been “agreed upon by Israel and Hamas.” “There are still gaps to fill,” but “the trend is positive,” he said.
“I am not moving one millimeter away from President Biden’s plan, but I am not allowing Hamas to move one millimeter away either,” commented Mr. Netanyahu on Saturday evening, who has always said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of the movement – classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union – and the release of all the hostages.
On Saturday, Hamas official Bassim Nae’m said the movement was calling for international “pressure” on the Israeli prime minister “to reach an agreement.”
On another front, on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it launched rockets into northern Israel – injuring four soldiers according to the Israeli army – after an Israeli strike that, according to a security source, killed two civilians in southern Lebanon.