Israel has announced that a Hamas commander was killed in Saturday’s strike on southern Gaza, but the fate of the major target, Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, remains uncertain.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated on Sunday that Rafe Salama, the head of the Khan Younis brigade and Deif’s deputy, was “eliminated” in the attack. According to the statement, Salama was “one of the closest associates” of Deif and “one of the masterminds” behind Hamas’ attack on October 7.
It remains unclear if Deif himself died in Saturday’s strike. The Israeli military is verifying his status, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledging the uncertainty.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the strike killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured 300 others in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone.
The UN’s Scott Anderson described the aftermath at a nearby hospital as “the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza.”
Deif, a key figure in Hamas, is believed to be one of the architects of the October 7 attacks and has led the group’s armed wing for over two decades. If confirmed, his death would mark the highest-profile Hamas leader killed since the conflict in Gaza began nine months ago. Israel has aimed to dismantle Hamas following the October 7 attacks, but with ongoing fighting and senior Hamas figures at large, that goal has seemed distant.
Israeli intelligence services announced this past week they had killed 25 Hamas operatives involved in the October 7 attacks. Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, revealed this figure during a meeting with IDF commanders in Rafah on Saturday, commending the Shin Bet’s intensified activity within Gaza.
Meanwhile, a fresh Israeli airstrike on a UN agency school in a camp for displaced people in central Gaza on Sunday killed at least 15 and injured over 100 others, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and officials at a nearby hospital. Video from the scene in Al-Nuseirat camp shows bodies and injured people being rushed to ambulances, some bleeding and covered in rubble.
A statement from the IDF on Sunday said the Israeli Air Force struck “a number of terrorists” operating in the area of the school in Nuseirat.
Source: CNN