Israel targets Hamas army chief Mohammed Deif; 71 died in Mawasi

It was not clear whether Deif was killed in the crash, but backup agencies and Gaza’s civil defense forces said it was a playground in an area Israel had designated as a “humanitarian zone” for civilians. .

“If senior Hamas leaders think that they will build a compound and hide in a compound in an area where we have called on them (civilians) to leave, then we will,” the military professional said in a briefing with journalists. Will hunt them.” Hamas commander Rafa Salama of Khan Younis was also involved in the crash, the army said.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that at least 90 people were killed and 300 injured in the bombing, with hospitals, clinics and extremist staff struggling to treat the injured. Thousands of displaced people are living in Mawasi – many of them in tents – after Israel in May issued orders to evacuate parts of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, and advised civilians to find safe shelter there.

“Paramedics are still trying to rescue people from under the sand,” said Raed al-Naims, spokesman for Palestine Crimson Crescent Population. Observers said the first of several reported actions began around 10:30 a.m. with local presence.

Hatem al-Attar, 25, is a member of Gaza’s civil defense forces. He said he was injured by shrapnel when a missile crashed into the department around 11 a.m. as he was working with colleagues to evacuate the community from the initial crash site.

“We saw people’s legs, arms and other body parts flying in the air due to the force of the explosion,” Attar said via telephone. ,

Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the crash, described Deif and Salama as “the two masterminds” of the October 7 attack. He did not assign the main points of the roles played by the commanders.

In May, Karim Khan, the renowned prosecutor of the International Court of Justice, announced that he was applying for an arrest warrant for Deaf, along with other Hamas leaders, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. , The charges Khan is seeking include rape, destruction and hostage-taking.

Khan also sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, alleging that both leaders have a chronic appetite for civilians in the form of war and that they knowingly directed attacks against civilians in Gaza. Gave.

An Israeli military expert who briefed journalists on Saturday declined to say which weapons were used in the attack.

Deif, which was designated as a terrorist by the Climate Section in 2015, has escaped some assassination attempts, even though some of its citizens have been killed in the operation.

The Israeli military sees attacks on Hamas leaders as key to getting rid of the mob, with experts warning that dissidents are single individuals whose death would be a blow to the movement.

Israel has assassinated several high-ranking Hamas officials since October. Earlier this year, an Israeli drone crash in Beirut killed Saleh Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas and one of the founders of its armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. In March, deputy army commander Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli crash in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

In a comment on Saturday, Hamas denied reports that Israel had targeted its leadership, saying “these false accusations are only meant to hide the scale of the terrible massacre,” and called the attack “a dangerous Described as “growth”.

The Qassam Brigades mentioned the accident on Def in a comment on Telegram, but did not explicitly confirm the leader’s death.

“There is no voice louder than the voice of the deaf…There is no weapon like the weapon of the deaf,” the post said. “May God reward you for this entire nation… May God preserve its shadow and its fear.”

Workplace of Israel’s top minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Any plan to break out of the eight-mile gap separating Gaza from Egypt. A message posted on social media on Friday said Netanyahu was insisting that Israel would remain within the Philadelphia Hall, after the Reuters news agency reported that Israel had deployed a digital surveillance device on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Was exploring the possibility of using . Its soldiers have to be taken out.

Rescue groups recover dozens of our bodies in Gaza Town after Israeli forces end offensive and withdrew from Tel al-Hawa and al-Sina gardens on Friday, the Palestinian Security Forces said. Israel announced an operation in the city in advance of this movement and dropped leaflets urging all citizens of the department to evacuate to the south.

The Israeli military said Friday that one soldier was killed in the north of the country. Where Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah have carried out cross-border firing for months. The army did not say how the 33-year-old died, but Haaretz newspaper reported that the soldier died after being injured in a drone strike on Thursday.

At least 38,443 people have been killed and 88,481 injured in Gaza since the war began. Gaza Fitness Ministry said. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of those killed were women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’ October 7 attack, including more than 300 infantrymen, and says that 326 infantrymen have been killed since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza. .

Alon Romm, Helier Cheung, and Steve Hendrix contributed to this document.