At least 90 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a Hamas military chief

An Israeli strike on a displacement camp in southern Gaza is said to have killed at least 90 Palestinians. According to Israel, the strike was directed towards the military chief of Hamas, who was allegedly the mastermind of the October 7 attacks.

According to a statement from the health ministry, the attack, which Israel claims targeted top Hamas leader Mohammed Deif among others, has left about 300 people injured.

After receiving assurances that there were no hostages in the area, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the operation to be carried out by the head of Shin Bet, the country's security agency, although he did not know if Deif and his deputy had died.

According to the ministry, the Kuwait and Nasser Hospitals on the ground were finding it difficult to handle the large number of civilian casualties who were arriving.

Hamas referred to the deaths as a "horrific massacre" and refuted Israeli accusations that it had targeted Deif and Salama.

“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.

One of Israel's most wanted individuals is Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.

After eluding capture and surviving multiple assassination attempts, including one in which he lost an eye in 2002, he has achieved almost mythical status in Gaza.

Deif, a bomb maker who is believed to have been born in the 1960s, was responsible for a string of suicide assaults in 1996 that claimed 65 lives in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in addition to other atrocities meant to sabotage the peace process.

Although his full name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, he was known as El Deif (the Guest) for decades since he spent each night in a different residence to avoid being discovered and eliminated by Israel.

There had already been assassination attempts against Deif by the Israelis. His wife, three-year-old daughter, and seven-month-old baby were all killed in an Israeli strike in 2014.

He is accused by Israel of being involved in the mid-1990s kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers as well as of organizing and overseeing bus explosions that killed tens of Israelis in 1996.

He is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the October 7th Hamas attack, which claimed the lives of over 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, the majority of whom were civilians, and kidnapped 251 more.

The International Criminal Court declared in May that it was pursuing arrest warrants for Deif and other prominent Hamas members, citing "reasonable grounds" to suspect them of being behind the October 7 assaults.