At least 71 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a designated humanitarian area, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. The attack targeted senior Hamas leaders, according to Israel.
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More than 289 people were wounded, according to a Health Ministry statement.
The attack hit the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli army has designated as a humanitarian zone and urged Palestinians to seek refuge there.
An Israeli military official said he did not know how many people were killed in the attack and did not say whether the two Hamas men were among the dead or wounded.|
He said the attack targeted the head of Hamasand's military wing, Mohammed Deif, one of the Israeli army's main targets, and took place in an "open zone" where the area was located. where "there were no civilians."
He declined to say whether it was inside a designated security zone, but said Hamas leaders had "cynically" set up camp in a civilian area.
BBC Verify has analyzed footage of the aftermath of the attack and confirmed it took place in an area designated as a humanitarian zone on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website.
The official also said he was unaware of any hostage-taking in the area during the October 7 attack on Israel.
Rafa Salama, the Hamas commander in Khan Younis, was also targeted, the official said, adding that "precise intelligence" was not needed. met before the "precision strike."
Hamas said the claim its leaders had been targets was "false."
and "This is not the first time Israel has claimed to attack Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later," the group said in a statement . A witness in al-Mawasi told the BBC that the scene of the attack resembled an "earthquake" at the scene of the accident, and videos from the area show smoldering remains and bloodied victims desperately trying to dig through the rubble with their hands
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