Hamas says 90 people killed and almost 300 injured in attack – but it is unclear if Mohammed Deif is among them
At least 10 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a prayer hall at a Gaza beach camp for the displaced, west of Gaza City, health officials said on Saturday, reports Reuters.
More details soon …
Nasser hospital in Khan Younis is “no longer able to function” as doctors are “overwhelmed with large number of casualties”, Nasser hospital health officials said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
Health officials at Nasser medical complex, previously the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, said that doctors could not provide medical healthcare to the large number of casualties because of the intensity of Israel’s military offensive and acute shortages in medical supplies.
Earlier, the Gaza health ministry said that Nasser hospital had received 20 bodies and 90 injured people as a result of an Israeli attack in Khan Younis. Reuters reports that the ministry didn’t give a final figure of victims moved to other medical facilities.
Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 71 Palestinians were killed and another 289 others were injured after an attack in Khan Younis on Saturday hit a camp for war displaced in southern Gaza.
Hamas says that Israeli claims of targeting leaders of the Palestinian militant group are “false” and aimed at “justifying” the attack. “It’s not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli military have said that its strike on Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif, was in a “fenced Hamas area” and that most people there were militants.
Earlier, a senior Hamas official called the Israeli allegations “nonsense”. “All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding the strike showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire deal. He did not confirm is Deif had been present.
Reuters reports that its footage shows ambulances racing towards the area of Saturday’s attack amid clouds of smoke and dust. Displaced people, including women and children, were fleeing in panic, some holding belongings in their hands.
Witnesses told Reuters that the attack was a surprise as the area had been calm, adding more than one missile had been fired. Some of the injured, who were being evacuated were rescue workers, they said.
“They’re all gone, my whole family’s gone … Where are my brothers? They’re all gone, they’re all gone. There’s no one left,” said one tearful woman, who did not give her name to the news agency. “Our children are in pieces, they are in pieces. Shame (on you),” she added.
An Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis targeted Hamas’s military chief and mastermind of the 7 October attack Mohammed Deif, Israeli military confirmed. It was unclear whether Deif was killed.
At least 71 Palestinians were killed and another 289 others were injured, said the Gaza health ministry in a statement on Saturday. It said the attack in Khan Younis hit a camp for war displaced in southern Gaza. The health ministry said that Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received 20 bodies and 90 injured people. Reuters reports that the ministry didn’t give a final figure of victims moved to other medical facilities
The Hamas-run media office said at least 100 people had been killed and injured, including members of the civil emergency service. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Deif was hiding in a building in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone Al-Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli army radio said. Israeli military said the strike on Deif was in a “fenced Hamas area” and that “most people there were militants”.
A senior Hamas official did not confirm whether Deif had been present and called the Israeli allegations “nonsense”. “All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding the strike showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire deal.
The office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the Israeli leader will hold security talks throughout the day after the military’s strike against Deif.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant was holding special consultations, his office said, in light of “developments in Gaza”. It was unclear how the strike would affect ceasefire talks under way in Doha and Cairo.
Deif was one of the masterminds of Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel. He has survived seven Israeli assassination attempts, reports Reuters, with the most recent in 2021 and has topped Israel’s most wanted list for decades.
A Gaza health ministry statement has said that the attack in Khan Younis on Saturday, which it says has killed at least 71 Palestinians and injured 289 others, hit the al-Mawasi camp.
Al-Mawasi, once a small coastal town, had become packed with tents set up by displaced Palestinians as it became a refuge for months to those fleeing the fighting.
Located near the border with Egypt in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, aid workers at al-Mawasi, told the Guardian in May that the camp had “horrific and dehumanising” conditions, with limited food, filthy and scarce water, overwhelmed healthcare facilities and almost no sanitation.
You can read that report from May here:
A senior Hamas official, Abu Zuhri has told Reuters that the reported attack in Khan Younis showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Reuters news agency reports that the office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the Israeli leader will hold security talks throughout the day after the military’s strike against Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif.
Israeli military have confirmed that it targeted Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif, in Saturday’s attack in Gaza.
As we just reported, the Gaza health ministry says 71 people were killed in the attack and almost 300 were injured.
It is unclear if Deif is among those killed.
More details soon …
Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday at least 71 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis on a camp for war displaced in southern Gaza, adding that 289 others were injured.
Agence France-Presse reports that a ministry statement gave an updated “toll of the horrific occupation (Israeli) massacre” at the al-Mawasi camp, up from at least 20 it initially said were killed, as Israel said it was looking into the incident.