Fresh Israeli attack on southern Gaza leaves 71 dead, 289 injured

In yet another Israeli air attack 'targeting Hamas commanders', at least 71 people have been killed and 289 wounded in the al-Mawasi refugee camp, west of Khan Younis, said the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli forces had designated the area as a so-called “safe” zone, Gaza’s Civil Defense told media. The coastal strip stretching from northern Rafah to Khan Younis has hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who fled there in search of safety, living mostly in makeshift tents.

According to an Israeli official, the strike targeted Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's military wing, in an "open area" where there were "only Hamas terrorists and no civilians".

Deif, one of top most wanted people in Israel, is believed to be one of the masterminds of Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. He has escaped seven Israeli assassination attempts, the latest one in 2021, a Reuters report said.

Rafa Salama, the Hamas commander for Khan Younis, was also targeted in the strike, the official said, calling the intelligence that led to the incident "accurate".

However, Hamas denied these claims calling it "false", in a statement cited by the Reuters news agency. "It is not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later," the statement said.

Last week on July 7, an Israeli strike on the UN-run school in Gaza, serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians claimed the lives of more than 16 people and injured at least 75.

Eyewitnesses at the site of the strike described it as if an "earthquake" had hit. Videos emerging from the area show burning wreckage with bodies smeared in blood being loaded onto stretchers. They also said, the rescue workers and health teams on the scene were targeted by Israeli forces.

Till now, Israeli assault has claimed at least 38,443 lives and has injured over 88,000 since the war on Gaza began on October 7. The Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7 took an estimated 1,139, lives while dozens of people are still held captive in Gaza.