An Israeli airstrike has killed at least 71 Palestinians and injured 289 in the Al Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip, the Gazan Ministry of Health said.
Al Mawasi is a densely populated “humanitarian zone” where thousands of people fleeing the Israeli offensive have taken refuge. Some have arrived as displaced persons from the north of the Strip, others have been evacuated from Rafah in the south. The Israeli army itself has ordered the transfer of the Gazan population to this area on several occasions, which it describes as “safe” and “humanitarian”, despite the fact that several international organisations and agencies have denounced the poor sanitary and humanitarian conditions in the camp.
Israel says the attack was specifically aimed at one of Hamas’ top leaders, Mohammed Deif. Deif, commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, the Islamist militant group’s armed wing, has been on Israel’s most-wanted list for years. The Israeli government holds him responsible for planning and carrying out numerous terrorist attacks, including the October 7 attack.
According to several Israeli officials who spoke to EFE, the Hamas leader was in a fenced-off area controlled by the Islamist group, where he was allegedly hiding with a large number of militants. Among them was Rafaa Salameh, another commander of the brigade wanted by Israel.
Hamas has denied that the Israeli attack targeted leaders of the group, and accused the Israeli government of using the need to eliminate the leadership of the militia as an excuse to commit “massacres.” “This is not the first time that the occupation has claimed to target Palestinian leaders, and then it turns out to have lied. These false allegations are used to try to cover up the scale of the horrific massacre,” Hamas said in a statement.
Meanwhile, medical staff at Nasser Hospital – close to the site of the incident and one of the few hospitals still operating in the Palestinian enclave – complain that the hospital “can no longer function”. Doctors say they are “overwhelmed” and unable to provide medical care in the face of the large number of victims caused by the bombing and the severe shortage of medical supplies due to the Israeli blockade.
Hamas leader Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the attack showed Israel was “not interested” in reaching any kind of ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. “All the martyrs are civilians and what has happened is a serious escalation of war and genocide, backed by American support and international silence,” the Hamas commander told the agency.
Since the conflict began on October 7, 38,443 people have been killed and 88,481 injured in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the latest count by the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel defends the attack
The Israeli military has defended its attack. “We were targeting terrorists. We were targeting senior Hamas commanders, who were the ringleaders of the October 7 attacks,” an Israeli official told reporters, without commenting on the casualty figures released by Palestinian authorities in recent hours. The Israeli military has insisted that the site attacked was a Hamas compound located in an open area, surrounded by trees and buildings, and not in the tents in Mawasi, where thousands of displaced people are living. According to the military, a large number of militants had been hiding in the compound.
The attack included at least five missiles, which Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera journalists hit tents and a desalination plant in the Al Nus roundabout. The Israel Defense Forces deny this, describing it as a precision strike against a home, although they admit that it was in the middle of civilians.
Source: www.eldiario.es
