Head of Hamas’ military wing targeted in Israeli attack on Gaza, 71 dead | World news

An Israeli attack on the south of the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed 71 people and injured many more, the Gaza Health Ministry said. An Israeli official said the target of the attack was the head of Hamas’ military wing.

The Israeli official identified the target of the attack in Khan Younis as Mohammed Deif, who many believe was the main architect of the October 7 attack that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked the war between Israel and Hamas.

Deif has been at the top of Israel’s wanted list for years and is said to have escaped several Israeli assassination attempts in the past.

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The official, who wished to remain anonymous pending an official announcement, said Rafa Salama, another senior Hamas official, was also targeted in the attack. The official did not have details on whether the two victims were killed.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 289 other people were injured in the attack and many of the injured and dead were taken to nearby Nasser Hospital. At the hospital, Associated Press journalists counted more than 40 bodies and witnesses there described an attack that included multiple blows.

It is still unclear whether the attack took place in Muwasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to the coastal strip in search of safety, mostly finding shelter in makeshift tents.

Israel launched its campaign in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack, in which militants entered southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments in Gaza have killed more than 38,300 people and injured more than 88,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry makes no distinction between fighters and civilians in its count. More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes, and most now live crammed into squalid tent camps and face widespread hunger.