Hamas says 90 people killed and almost 300 injured in attack – but it is unclear if Mohammed Deif is among them
The Times of Israel reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is still awaiting intelligence that could confirm the deaths of Mohammed Deif and Rafa Salama.
The publication also reports that the IDF have released another image showing, what it says, is a fenced-off Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Saudi channel Al-Hadath reported that Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was killed in the strike and that Mohammed Deif was seriously wounded.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
The international charity, ActionAid has said it is “extremely concerned about the safety of our staff and partners” in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, some of whom it has not yet been able to make contact with. The charity said it was “utterly horrified and appalled by the devastating attack”.
In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, ActionAid said:
We are utterly horrified and appalled by the devastating attack on the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis and extremely concerned about the safety of our staff and partners in the area, some of whom we have not yet been able to make contact with.
This is an area that had been designated a safe humanitarian zone, yet at least 71 people have been brutally slaughtered there today and hundreds injured, once again making it perfectly clear that absolutely nowhere is safe in Gaza.
As yet more Palestinians mourn their loved ones or attempt to seek medical help from a health system that is overwhelmed and on its knees, we plea – yet again – for this nightmare to come to an end and for a permanent ceasefire, now.”
The Israeli army said, in a statement, that it “struck Mohammed Deif and Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade, who are two of the masterminds of the 7 October massacre”.
It came after the Gaza health ministry said 71 people were killed and 289 injured in an Israeli strike on the al-Mawasi camp for displaced people in southern Gaza.
In a social media post on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote:
In a joint IDF and ISA activity based on precise intelligence, the IDF’s Southern Command and the IAF carried out a strike in an area where two senior Hamas terrorists and additional terrorists hid among civilians. The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds.
The IDF attached a before and after image of what it says was a “compound where the senior terrorists and additional terrorists hid before and after the strike”:
In a joint IDF and ISA activity based on precise intelligence, the IDF's Southern Command and the IAF carried out a strike in an area where two senior Hamas terrorists and additional terrorists hid among civilians. The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees,… pic.twitter.com/1MEJYHHwm7
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 13, 2024
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its ambulance crews had dealt with 102 injuries and 23 people who were killed in the Israeli attack in Khan Younis on Saturday.
The PRCS said 70 of the injuries and 21 of the dead were transferred to its al-Quds field hospital, while 22 injured people were transferred to al-Amal hospital.
The death toll in a reported Israeli attack on a prayer hall at a Gaza beach camp for the displaced, west of Gaza City, has climbed to 17 say health officials. They had previously said at least 10 people were killed in the attack (see 12.37pm BST).
The Israeli military is still verifying the result of a strike that targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif and another senior Hamas official on Saturday, a military official told a briefing with reporters.
He said the strike targeted a military compound in the west of the Gaza city of Khan Younis and he said he could not confirm Palestinian reports that at least 71 people were killed in the attack, Reuters reported.
The WHO in Palestine has said on social media that it has managed to deliver aid to hospitals, as well as fuel supplies.
In a post on X, it said:
Despite increasing insecurity and hostilities in northern #Gaza, yesterday @WHO managed to reach Indonesian, Al Awda, and Kamal Adwan hospitals to deliver 20,000 litres of fuel and medical supplies, thanks to support from @ROJ_Palestine and @eu_echo.
The closure of Al-Ahli and Patient Friendly hospitals has increased the load on the remaining partially functional hospitals in the north.
Without sustained deliveries of fuel and medical supplies, these hospitals will struggle to stay operational and provide lifesaving health care.
Our plea remains: ensure the sustained flow of aid into Gaza via all possible routes and crossings, and unimpeded access to health facilities for the delivery of supplies.
As a terrorist attack, a harsh response and an ensuing invasion strike familiar chords, analysts look for lessons from a war of 42 years ago.
It started with a terrorist attack, which triggered massive military retaliation, the siege of a city, the deaths of thousands of civilians and devastation and global outrage. If the military operation was a success in tactical terms, it led to strategic failures that scarred the nation and the region for decades to come.
Sounds familiar? Forty-two years later, as a new conflict looms on Israel’s northern borders, historians, analysts and veterans of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon are looking to that now-distant war for lessons and warnings.
Inevitably, much was very different back on the summer’s day when a gunman sent to London by a Palestinian breakaway faction in the pay of Saddam Hussein narrowly failed to kill Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, as he left a dinner at the Dorchester hotel. The cold war was at its chilliest for decades; the main threat to Israel from across its northern frontier was the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), then led by Yasser Arafat and though the Iranian revolution of 1979 had made clear the new power of political Islamism, few thought resurgent religion could pose a real danger to Israel.
But if many differences are clear, there are some obvious parallels too, perhaps confirming the adage that if history doesn’t repeat itself, it can rhyme.