At least 90 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
The strike was targeting Hamas military leaders but Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no certainty” they were killed.
The Gaza health ministry said 300 people have been injured by the attack on the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone.
BBC Verify has confirmed that the strike took place in an area shown on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian zone. The Israeli army has repeatedly urged Palestinians to head there after issuing evacuation orders from other areas.
Many of those wounded in the strike, including women and children, were taken to the nearby Nasser Hospital, Reuters reported.
The attack was targeted at Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif and his deputy Rafa Salama. Deif is said to be one of the orchestrators of the 7 October attack.
But Mr Netanyahu said in a news conference on Saturday evening that “there still isn’t absolute certainty” that the military leaders were killed.
He added: “Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas.”
The deputy leader of Hamas, Khalil Al-Hayya, told Al Jazeera TV that the attack did not hit its target, saying: “Mohammed Deif is listening to you right now and mocking your lies.”
Hamas rejected the claim that Dief was in the area, alleging that “these false claims are merely a cover-up for the scale of the horrific massacre”.
Deif has survived seven Israeli assassination attempts, the most recent in 2021, and has topped Israel’s most wanted list for decades, held responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.
Mr Netanyahu authorised the operation after being briefed by his general security forces. He said he wanted to ensure there were no hostages nearby, what the collateral damage would be and what weapons would be used.
One eyewitness, who is from Gaza City but currently displaced in the Al-Mawasi area, told Reuters: “I couldn’t even tell where I was or what was happening.”
The resident, Sheikh Youssef, continued: “I left the tent and looked around, all the tents were knocked down, body parts, bodies everywhere, elderly women thrown on the floor, young children in pieces.”
A Hamas official, cited by Reuters, called Saturday’s attack a “grave escalation” that showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Ceasefire negotiations being held in Qatar and Egypt ended on Friday without reaching an agreement, according to reports.
Israel began its campaign in Gaza after the 7 October attack, when Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and air strikes have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza and wounded more than 88,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The ministry’s figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians.
More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with the majority living in overcrowded camps facing severe hunger.