Israeli airstrike kills at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza on Saturday, the enclave's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it remained unclear whether Deif had been killed, telling a news conference: "Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas."

The Hamas group said Israeli claims it had targeted leaders of the group were false and aimed at justifying the attack, which was the deadliest Israeli attack in Gaza in weeks.

Displaced people sheltering in the area said their tents were torn down by the force of the strike, describing bodies and body parts strewn on the ground.

"I couldn't even tell where I was or what was happening," said Sheikh Youssef, a resident of Gaza City who is currently displaced in the Al-Mawasi area.

"I left the tent and looked around, all the tents were knocked down, body parts, bodies everywhere, elderly women thrown on the floor, young children in pieces," he told Reuters.

The Israeli military said the strike against Deif also targeted Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade, describing them as two of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the nine-month war in Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 289 others were injured in the attack - one of the war's deadliest - and that many dead and injured were taken to overwhelmed Nasser Hospital nearby.

"A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them," the Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military asserted that "additional terrorists hid among civilians" and described the strike location as an area surrounded by trees, several buildings and sheds.

Footage of the aftermath showed a huge crater, charred tents, burnt-out cars and household belongings scattered across the blackened earth. Victims were carried on the hoods and in the hatchbacks of cars, and on donkey carts and carpets.

Witnesses said the strike landed inside Muwasi, the Israeli-designated safe zone that stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis.

The coastal strip is where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to in search of safety, sheltering mostly in sweltering, makeshift tents and with little services.

"This was designated as a safe zone filled with people from the north,” said one displaced Palestinian man who did not give his name.

"Children were all martyred here. We collected their pieces with our hands.”

He estimated there were seven or eight missiles and asserted that first responders were targeted as well.

At the hospital, a baby in a pink shirt, her face covered with sand, cried while receiving first aid.

A small boy lay motionless at the other end of the bed, one shoe gone. Victims lay amid spattered blood on the floor, and bodies were wrapped in white plastic scrawled in marker with their names.

Meanwhile, US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators continue to push to narrow gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed deal for a three-phase cease-fire and hostage release plan in Gaza.

The US-backed proposal calls for an initial cease-fire with a limited hostage release and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas in Gaza.

At the same time, the two sides will negotiate terms of the second phase, which is supposed to bring a full hostage release in return for a permanent cease-fire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Since Oct.7, 2023, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,400 people in Gaza and wounded more than 88,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

More than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, and most are now crowded into squalid tent camps, facing widespread hunger.

Associated Press