Cairo:

An Israeli airstrike targeted Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif in Gaza on Saturday, a security official and Israel Army Radio said, in an attack that the enclave’s health ministry said had killed at least 71 Palestinians.

It was unclear whether Deif was killed, the security official said. Army Radio said Deif was hiding in a building in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone Al-Mawasi, west of the southern city of Khan Younis.

Deif was one of the masterminds of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. He has survived seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, and has topped Israel’s most-wanted list for decades.

The Gaza health ministry said at least 71 Palestinians had been killed in the strike and 289 injured.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was holding special consultations, his office said, in light of “developments in Gaza”. It was unclear how the strike would affect ceasefire talks underway in Doha and Cairo.

The Hamas-run media office said at least 100 people had been killed and wounded, including members of the Civil Emergency Service. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

A senior Hamas official did not confirm whether Deif had been present and called the Israeli allegations “nonsense”.

“All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding the strike showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire deal.

Attack “Surprising”, Say Witnesses

Reuters footage showed ambulances racing towards the area amidst clouds of smoke and dust. Displaced people, including women and children, were fleeing in panic, some holding belongings in their hands.

Witnesses said the attack was a surprise as the area had been calm, adding more than one missile had been fired. Some of the wounded, who were being evacuated were rescue workers, they said.

“They’re all gone, my whole family’s gone.. where are my brothers? They’re all gone, they’re all gone. There’s no one left,” said one tearful woman, who did not give her name.

“Our children are in pieces, they are in pieces. Shame (on you),” she added.

Rising up the Hamas ranks over 30 years, Deif developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise. He is held responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel has retaliated by military action in Gaza that has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, medical authorities in Gaza say.

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Tel Aviv:

Israel said Monday it was looking into the “grave and awful” impact on Palestinian civilians of a Gaza strike the previous night that the army said had targeted Hamas operatives.

“We’re looking into this,” said government spokesman Avi Hyman after officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza had reported 45 dead in a displacement camp where the strike caused a fire.

“It was definitely grave,” Hyman said. “Any loss of life, civilian live, is grave and is awful. We seek to go after Hamas and limit civilian casualties… This is an unfolding story.”

The strike was aimed at two Hamas militants responsible for “many attacks” targeting Israelis in the occupied West Bank, he said.

“The were drenched in Israeli blood, these two individuals,” Hyman said.

“According to initial reports, a fire broke out after the attack. These terrorists were hiding underground, and it would appear that there were civilian casualties.”

The military said that the strike, which came hours after a rocket attack from Rafah had targeted Tel Aviv, had killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, both senior officials for Hamas in the West Bank.

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At least 10 people, including children, were killed in Gaza on Sunday after a drone strike hit the school they were sheltering, CNN reported, citing local health workers.

The Al-Nazla school in Saftawawy, on the outskirts of Jabaliya, was being used as a temporary shelter by people fleeing violence when the drone strike took place.

Speaking to CNN, an eyewitness, Saleh Al-Aswad from Jabaliya, said that his son-in-law is undergoing treatment for injuries suffered during the attack.

He added that a “man making bread for his children, thinking this was a safe space,” was killed along with his daughter, Afnan, and his son, Mohamed. The news of the strike comes at a time when United Nations agencies have warned that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

In a statement shared on X on Saturday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that Gaza’s healthcare system “is on its knees” as access to hospitals and facilities shrink further amid supply shortages and attacks.

The OCHA report, citing the WHO said that, as of Friday, 15 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza were only partially functional, 21 hospitals were out of service, and there were six functional field hospitals. The agency said that the existing hospitals were functioning at more than four times their bed capacity, the agency said, citing the Gaza Ministry of Health.

It further added, “Shortages in fuel, medical supplies and equipment are threatening the ability of the remaining health facilities to operate.”

The director of the Kuwait hospital in Rafah shared a video on WhatsApp to “sound the alarm to the WHO to keep this hospital operational and to guarantee it doesn’t shut down by providing it with the necessary fuel,” according to CNN report.

In the video message, Suhaib al-Homs said the Kuwait Hospital is now the only functioning hospital in central Rafah where people can reach “around the clock” as the field hospitals in surrounding areas are difficult to access without an ambulance.

He said, “We are warning of the mounting health crisis as hospitals are going out of service and the collapse of the health sector.” He further added, “We will keep on working and the medical teams will keep doing their job. What’s happening now makes us more steadfast and adamant to fulfill our duty to serve our people.”

The UN aid agency has warned that some displaced people in central Gaza are now surviving on 3 per cent of the minimum standard for daily water needs and that communicable diseases, including diarrhea and suspected Hepatitis A, continue to rise among children, particulary those who are below the age of five.

Earlier this week, the WHO head urged Israel to ease all restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip and stressed that the primary route for vital medical aid to enter Gaza from Egypt had been cut off amid Israel’s ongoing military operation on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

On Friday, the United Nations’ top court has ordered Israel to halt its operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and withdraw from the enclave, CNN reported.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) situated in The Hague, Netherlands gave the order on Friday, in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing “immense risk” to the Palestinian population.

“Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” said Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), CNN reported.

Notably, the decision marks the third time this year, the 15-judge panel has issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death count and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. However, it is pertinent to note that while orders are legally binding, the court has no police to enforce them.

The court stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza had deteriorated “even further” since the court last ordered provisional measures in March.”The humanitarian situation is now to be characterized as disastrous,” Salam said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinians carry a wounded person following an Israeli airstrike near the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

An Israeli airstrike hit a tent camp in the courtyard of a crowded hospital in central Gaza on March 31, killing two Palestinians and wounding another 15, including journalists working nearby.

The incident happened at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where thousands of people have sheltered after fleeing their homes elsewhere in the war-ravaged territory. People including women and children scattered and cried out.

The Israeli military said it struck a command center of the Islamic Jihad militant group and claimed the hospital’s functioning was not affected.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals since the start of the war nearly six months ago, viewing them as relatively safe from airstrikes. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of operating in and around medical facilities, and troops have raided a number of hospitals.

Israeli troops have been raiding Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, for nearly two weeks and say they have fought heavy battles with militants in and around the medical compound. The military says it has killed scores of fighters, including senior Hamas operatives. It said Sunday it had found numerous weapons hidden there.

Palestinian families who fled from the area, including many who had been displaced earlier in the war, say they were ordered to march south by Israeli soldiers after days of heavy fighting.

Only a third of Gaza’s hospitals are even partially functioning, while Israeli strikes kill and wound scores of people every day. Doctors say they are often forced to treat patients on hospital floors because all the beds are taken, and to operate without anesthetic and other crucial medical supplies.

Those wounded in Sunday’s strike lay on the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital floor and gasped while being treated, one clutching at the underside of a stretcher that held someone else.

An international team of doctors who recently visited the hospital said they were horrified by the war’s gruesome impact on Palestinian children. The World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated abroad for lifesaving care.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on October 7 and rampaged across southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Over 100 captives were freed last year in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israel responded to the assault with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, one that has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. More than half of the population is now sheltering in the southern city of Rafah, where Israel plans a ground offensive despite warnings of catastrophe from allies and humanitarian groups.

The United Nations and partners have warned that famine could occur in devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza as early as this month. Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel must allow far more aid by road. Egypt has said thousands of trucks are waiting. The top U.N. court has ordered Israel to open more land crossings and take other measures to address the crisis.

The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told CBS on Sunday that WFP was able to get just nine trucks into Gaza on Saturday. “That’s nothing. We just cannot continue this way,” she said, calling for unrestricted access. “People are going to die otherwise, and they already are dying.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 32,782 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including 77 whose bodies were brought to hospitals over the last 24 hours. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it has said that women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

Israel says over one-third of the dead are militants, though it has not provided evidence to support that, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas. Gaza health officials have repeatedly denied Israeli claims that militants operate in hospitals.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker another cease-fire and hostage release since January. The cease-fire talks resumed in Cairo on Sunday, with little expectation of any breakthrough.

Hamas is demanding that any such agreement lead to an end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those demands and says Israel will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. But he is under growing pressure to reach a deal from families of the hostages, some of whom have joined mass demonstrations calling for early elections to replace him.

On Saturday night, families of hostages said weekly protests would take to the streets of Israel from now on.