Deif – the leader of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades – was targeted Saturday in an airstrike based on precise intelligence in Al-Mawasi, a camp west of the city of Khan Younis, an Israeli security official told CNN.
The Israeli military said it in the process of verifying whether Deif was killed in the strike. Deif was targeted alongside the head of the Khan Younis brigade, Rafe Salama, the security official added.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported at least 71 people killed in the same Al-Mawasi area in Israeli strikes, with nearly 300 people injured.
The strikes hit an area where displaced people were sheltering, according to the ministry. Videos from the scene show locals and rescue teams trying to unearth several people still trapped.
Al-Mawasi has been designated by Israel as a safe zone for Palestinians fleeing the fighting raging in Gaza.
The Kuwait and Nasser Hospitals on the ground are now struggling to cope with the high numbers of dead and injured civilians coming in, the ministry said.
Hamas denied Israeli claims it had targeted Deif and Salama, calling the killings a “horrific massacre.”
“The occupation’s claims of targeting leaders are false claims, and this is not the first time the occupation has claimed to target Palestinian leaders, only for its lies to be exposed later,” a statement read.
Little is know about Deif. Thought to have been born in the 1960s, Deif is a bomb maker was behind a wave of four suicide attacks in 1996 that killed 65 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other outrages intended to derail the peace process.
His full name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, but he became known as El Deif (the Guest), because, for decades, he stayed in different houses every night to avoid being tracked, and killed, by Israel.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
