The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 90 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a designated humanitarian area.
About 300 people have been injured, according to the health ministry’s statement, in an attack which Israel says targeted senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and his deputy Rafa Salama.
In a news conference on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no certainty” that either of them had been killed.
The strike hit the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone. Netanyahu said he gave the order for the operation to go ahead after being briefed by his general security forces.
He said he wanted to know there were no hostages nearby, the extent of the collateral damage and what kinds of weapons would be used.
Having heard the plan, he “wished them the best of luck”.
During the news conference, he promised to eradicate all of the group’s senior members.
“Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas,” Netanyahu added.
An Israeli military official said the strike took place in an “open area” where there were “no civilians”.
He refused to say whether it was inside a designated safe zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” set up in a civilian area.
Footage of the aftermath of the strike was analysed by various sources, confirming that it took place within an area shown on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian zone.
The official also said he was unaware of any hostages taken during the 7 October attack on Israel being in the area.
He added that “accurate intelligence” was gathered before the “precision strike”.
Hamas said the claim that their leaders were targets is “false”.
“It is not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later,” the group said in a statement.
An eyewitness in al-Mawasi said that the site of the strike looked like an “earthquake” had hit.
Videos from the area show smouldering wreckage and bloodied casualties being loaded on to stretchers.
People can be seen trying desperately to pick through the rubble of a large crater with their hands. BBC news