Israel accuses Hamas of trying to 'hide' the results of its airstrike which killed 'at least 90 people' while targeting October 7 mastermind Mohammed Deif - as the terrorist group insists its military chief is in good health
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Israel has accused Hamas of trying to conceal the results of its airstrike targeting terror commander Mohammed Deif.
'It is still too soon to sum up the results of the attack, which Hamas is trying to hide,' the Chief of the Israeli General Staff Herzi Halevi said in a televised statement.
Israel carried out the airstrike on a compound they believed to be where Deif, who is considered to be one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attack, was hiding on Saturday.
But Hamas insists its military commander was in good health, while health officials in Gaza said the strike killed at least 90 people, including children.
Hamas representatives gave no evidence to back up their assertion about the health of Deir and his condition remained unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night 'there still isn't absolute certainty' he was killed.
Palestinians evacuate a body from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024
Israel carried out the airstrike on a compound they believed to be where Deif (pictured), who is considered to be one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attack, was hiding on Saturday
Health officials in Gaza said the the strike killed at least 90 people, including children
Vehicles and buildings were destroyed in the strike on the Al-Mawasi area, located west of Khan Yunis, Gaza
Palestinian children are evacuated from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024
His killing would mark the highest profile assassination of any Hamas leader by Israel since the war began. Deif has long topped Israel's most-wanted list and has been in hiding for years.
The Israeli military said Rafa Salama, a Hamas commander it described as one of Deif's closest associates, was killed in Saturday's strike.
Salama had commanded Hamas' Khan Younis brigade. Netanyahu said all of Hamas' leaders are 'marked for death' and asserted that killing them would move Hamas closer to accepting a cease-fire deal.
Hamas rejected the idea that mediated ceasefire discussions had been suspended. Spokesperson Jihad Taha said 'there is no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations' but added that 'efforts and endeavors of the mediators remain ongoing.'
Hamas political officials also insisted that communication channels remained functional between the leadership inside and outside Gaza after the strike in the territory's south.
Witnesses said it occurred in an area that Israel had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians. Israel's military would not confirm that.
On Sunday, some survivors were angry that the attack targeting Deif occurred without warning in an area they had been told was safe.
'I heard the first hit, and my son came screaming, 'Daddy, daddy' and took cover with me,' said Mahmoud Abu Yaseen, who clutched his children but then woke up in the hospital to find his son had died. The family had already been displaced five times since the war began. 'Where do we go?' he asked.
A United Nations official described utter chaos at Nasser hospital where victims were taken, many treated on bloodstained floors with few supplies available.
'I witnessed some of the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza,' Scott Anderson said in a statement.
'I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment and others separated from their parents.'
Wounded are transported to Nasser Hospital after an Israeli raid on the tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024
A Palestinian man carries the body of his son who was killed after an Israeli raid on the tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, 13 July 2024
Palestinians evacuate a dead person from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024
A crying mother and her children evacuate the area of the Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on July 13, 2024
Palestinians inspect the damage at a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024
At least 90 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 300 injured in an Israeli airstrike on a designated humanitarian zone on Saturday, the Gazan health ministry has said
The damage following an Israeli strike at a tent camp in the Al-Mawasi area of Gaza
He said restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza hamper efforts to provide needed medical and other care.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the pilots who carried out the strike and said Hamas is being eroded every day, with no ability to arm itself, organize or 'care for the wounded.'
At least 300 people were wounded in the strike, one of the deadliest in the nine-month war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage.
More than 38,400 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments since then, according to the territory's Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed at least 14 people at the gate of a school used as a shelter for displaced people, according to an Associated Press journalist who visited two hospitals.
Wounded Palestinians at Nasser Hospital after an Israeli raid on the tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024
Palestinians mourn over the body of a relative killed in an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024
People search for bodies and survivors at the site of an Israeli strike in Gaza on July 13, 2024
The wounded are transported to Nasser Hospital after an Israeli raid on the tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024
The strike, which was the deadliest in recent weeks, was targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, but it remains unclear if he was killed
Many of those wounded in the strike, including women and children, were taken to the nearby Nasser Hospital
A child walks amid the damage following an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area
The strike, which was the deadliest in recent weeks, was targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, but it remains unclear if he was killed
Children were among the 15 others wounded. Israel's military in a statement said it struck 'terrorists' operating in the area of a school run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
'They are targeting everything,' said a displaced Palestinian, Um Fadi Al-Zeer.
Also on Sunday, police said a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem carried out a car-ramming attack in central Israel that injured four Israelis, two of them seriously.
Israeli border police at the scene shot dead the attacker after he hit people waiting at two bus stops along a busy road. Israel's military said four of its personnel were wounded, two of them severely.
Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai said such attacks were often 'triggered' by events like Saturday's airstrike in Gaza.
