Israel targets Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif; 90 killed in Gaza

In a statement, Hamas called Israel’s claims to have targeted top commanders “false allegations” intended to “cover up the scale of the horrific massacre.”

The strikes, targeting one of Hamas’s most senior operatives, could threaten delicate cease-fire negotiations that President Biden insisted Friday were moving in a “positive” direction, after more than nine months of war. Hamas called the attack a “dangerous escalation.” Netanyahu said Israel would continue to put “sustained military pressure” on Hamas while cease-fire talks are underway, adding that any deal must allow Israel “to return to the battlefield until all of our objectives are met.”

And as the area’s overstretched hospitals filled with hundreds of victims Saturday, including children, the strikes again raised questions about the number of civilian casualties Israel was willing to tolerate in pursuit of its military goals in the Gaza Strip. More than 38,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

News of the strike circulated Saturday morning, with a video of what appeared to be a large explosion near the sea. A satellite photograph of the area later published by the Israeli military, along with other videos verified by The Washington Post, showed that the site of the Israeli strikes was in an area called Mawasi, in western Gaza along the coast, where Palestinians from southern Gaza have gathered at the urging of the Israel Defense Forces, to escape fighting farther to the east.

The strikes occurred in an area designated by Israel as a “humanitarian area,” according to the Post analysis of videos — an area where the IDF has touted the presence of hospitals, shelter, and “increased amounts” of supplies such as food and medicine.

Photographs showed what appeared to be one or more large craters at a blast site. People who were hundreds of feet away said they were blown off their feet by explosions.

“The occupation demands citizens to go to places it claims it is safe, but unfortunately it targets it and fires missiles at it,” said Mohamad Gharib, 42, who said he was thrown into the air by the attack early Saturday, which consisted of what he said were at least four separate airstrikes.

An Israeli military official who briefed reporters Saturday, on the condition of anonymity in line with military protocol, said the strikes were based on “very very accurate intelligence” and struck a “compound” used by Hamas. The official said he could not verify the death toll released by Palestinian authorities but added, “I can confirm that there were other guards, terrorists in this compound, I can assume that they were killed.” No Israeli hostages were present “as far as we know,” the official said.

The official did not deny that the area Israel struck was in the “humanitarian area,” but said it was struck “because we knew it was a Hamas compound.”

Deif, a founder of the al-Qassam Brigades and its leader for more than two decades, is one of Israel’s most hunted figures, surviving numerous assassination attempts while rarely appearing in public. Israeli military officials on Saturday described Deif and the second commander who was targeted, Rafa Salama, as “two of the masterminds” of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, without providing detail on their roles.

In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he was applying for an arrest warrant for Deif, along with other Hamas leaders, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khan also requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alleging the two Israeli leaders have used starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and intentionally directed attacks against civilians in Gaza.

The timing of Saturday’s attack — as cease-fire talks hang in the balance — stirred speculation that Netanayhu had ordered it to scuttle the negotiations, in a move to prolong the war and ensure his own political survival. But such speculation misunderstood Israel’s approach, Mairav Zonszein, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, wrote in a post on X.

“Any chance Israel gets to kill Hamas officials or rescue hostages it goes for – callously irrespective of context,” she wrote. Israel’s military and Netanyahu “see the killing of Deif as a significant strategic gain – even something that can help ceasefire/hostage deal more than hurt it,” she added, noting that the killing, if confirmed, could appease hard-right members of his ruling coalition as Netanyahu tried to sell a cease-fire deal.

The setting for Saturday’s strikes was a crowded civilian quarter that surrounded Israel’s apparent target — an area that witnesses said was filled with tents and other temporary shelters as well as shops that had sprung up to serve the masses of displaced people in the area.

The area has seen a large influx of displaced Gazan residents, seeking refuge from violence in the south and east of Khan Younis. The Post compared satellite imagery from Planet Labs between April and July of this year, and hundreds of temporary structures appear in images from July 11 in spaces that were empty on April 18.

The Post also verified a video that circulated online of a man standing near the aftermath of the IDF airstrikes, holding what appeared to be a weapon fragment. Two weapons experts independently confirmed to The Post that the fragment was a metal tail fin from a U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM ) guidance kit.

“The fin fragment recovered is a perfect match for the fin of U.S.-made JDAM guidance kits,” Trevor Ball, a former explosive ordnance disposal technician for the U.S. Army, wrote in a message. Images of the strikes’ aftermath are consistent with the use of MK-series bombs, which weigh between 500 and 2,000 pounds, Ball said. He cautioned, though, that it is not possible to determine if the body of the bomb was U.S.- or Israeli-made, as both countries produce compatible munitions.

Tents lined the road around the site of the blast, along with “dozens of street vendors,” said Gharib, who said he was thrown by the explosions as he was walking in the area. After he had recovered, he was surrounded by “women and children, cut into pieces,” he said. A few minutes later, a “reconnaissance plane” fired on civil defense workers who tried to respond, he said, echoing the accounts of other witnesses.

Hatem al-Attar, 25, who works for the civil defense, said in a phone interview that he had arrived at the site of the initial Israeli strikes and was trying to keep civilians away from the area when another missile struck, about 65 feet away. He felt a “prick” in his right leg and saw blood pouring from a wound. Colleagues took him to Nasser Hospital, where the dead, some badly mutilated, were also arriving. By day’s end, two of his colleagues had died of their wounds, the civil defense said.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, arrived at Nasser Hospital in the late afternoon, hours after the strikes, she said in a voice message. “The entire hospital felt like it was drenched in blood,” she said. Sanitary conditions in the facility were “nonexistent.”

The victims there, she said, included a 2-year-old girl who was separated from her family after being hurled in the blast, until she was found by her grandmother. The girl’s mother was still missing. Another young girl in the hospital, around 11, was paralyzed from the waist down, doctors told Wateridge. “There’s no real way for her to get treatment.”

Other children had their legs amputated. A child who was nearly killed in October arrived again Saturday, disabled from the latest blast, doctors told Wateridge. A mother in the hospital was “in absolute despair.” She had rented a plot of land in Mawasi because she was told “it was the safe place to go,” Wateridge quoted her as saying. One of the woman’s daughters was paralyzed Saturday. Her 8-year-old son was killed.

“Many of the children we saw today are now disabled. They’ve got injuries for the rest of their lives that will need treatment that is not available to them in Gaza,” Wateridge said.

Fahim and El Chamaa reported from Beirut, Harb and Loveluck from London, Baran from San Francisco and Bisset from London. Lior Soroka and Alon Rom in Tel Aviv, Helier Cheung in London, Meg Kelly in Washington, and Steve Hendrix in Gardner, Pa. contributed to this report.