Attack on Khan Yunis

Hamas denies killing its military chief Deif

(Bild: AP)

An Israeli strike against the military chief of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Deif, has apparently failed. Deif was not killed in the attack on Khan Yunis on Saturday, Hamas deputy chief Khalil al-Hayya told the television station Al Jazeera.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also previously expressed doubts about the killing. "There is still no absolute certainty," he said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. According to Hamas, more than 100 people died in the airstrike on tent shelters.

The Israeli army had previously announced that it was still investigating whether Deif and Rafa Salama, the commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade, were killed in the airstrike west of the town of the same name. Hours earlier, the Israeli military bombed a fenced-off object in the humanitarian zone between Khan Yunis and Al-Mawasi, which Israel claimed served as a base for Hamas terrorists.

Attack in a "humanitarian zone"?
According to the Ministry of Health, the attack took place in a "humanitarian zone" of the Al-Mawasi refugee camp in the west of Khan Yunis, which Israel has designated as safe. Many of the injured were in mortal danger, according to medical sources. According to the report, tents of displaced persons were hit.

According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, there were several heavy attacks in the area in the morning. Staff at the nearby Nasser Hospital reported that there were no longer enough beds to accommodate the large number of injured following the attacks.

One of Israel's goals in the Gaza war is to capture or kill Deif and the Hamas leader in the coastal area, Yahya Sinwar. They are considered the two most important leaders of the organization within the Gaza Strip. In March, the army reported the killing of the third most senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Marwan Issa.

Army: "Several terrorists eliminated"
According to the Israeli army, it also continued its operations in the city of Gaza in the north of the Gaza Strip on Saturday. "In cooperation with the air force, the soldiers eliminated several terrorists yesterday," the military said on Saturday.

In the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, "numerous tunnel entrances" were destroyed and Hamas fighters were also killed. The air force also targeted a warehouse. The paragliders used in the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 had been stored there.

A correspondent for the AFP news agency reported artillery fire on Saturday in the south-east of Gaza and in the center of the city. The Tel al-Hawa neighborhood was reportedly shelled with drones. At least ten Palestinians are said to have been killed near Gaza City in an Israeli attack that hit a prayer hall in a camp for displaced persons, according to reports from the health sector.

Eyewitnesses had reported the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from some neighborhoods in Gaza on Friday. According to the civil defense in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian area, around 60 bodies had been found there after a two-week Israeli offensive. The Israeli army claimed to have killed "more than 150 terrorists".