At least 141 people have been killed and around 400 wounded in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, according to figures from the Hamas-controlled enclave’s health ministry.
Since the war in Gaza began, 38,584 people have been killed and 88,881 injured, and the bodies of thousands more are estimated to remain buried under the rubble.
This is the latest update from health authorities following a day in which two major attacks were seen once morest the devastated Palestinian enclave: one in the humanitarian zone of Mawasi, in the south, and another in the Shati refugee camp, near Gaza City, in the north.
Almost a hundred dead
The Mawasi attack, which targeted Hamas’s number two in the Gaza Strip and its military chief, Mohamed Deif, whose condition is unknown, left at least 90 dead and more than 300 wounded, according to Gazan authorities.
The Israeli army justified the attack on an area it has classified as a “humanitarian zone” by saying that the bombing was precise and that it occurred on a Hamas compound located in an open area, surrounded by trees and buildings, and not on the tents in Mawasi, where thousands of displaced people live.
According to the army, a large number of militants were gathered in the complex, including Rafaa Salameh, commander of the Khan Yunis brigade of the armed wing of Hamas and right-hand man of Deif, whose condition is also unknown.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out last night to say that there was “still no absolute certainty” regarding the deaths of the two Hamas commanders.
A mosque was attacked
In the Shati camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, at least twenty people were killed in an attack on a mosque that, according to Palestinian media, took place while people were gathered to pray.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued its operations in the town of Rafah, the southernmost in the enclave, where it destroyed an anti-tank missile launcher that had been used to attack troops, according to a military statement.
Soldiers also killed several militants in close-range combat and destroyed tunnel entrances and other infrastructure.
Negotiation
The attack in Mawasi once morest Hamas’s number two in Gaza comes at a critical moment for negotiations on a ceasefire in the enclave that would allow the release of the hundred or so Israeli hostages still in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Amid speculation over whether the Islamist group will end the talks in response to the bombing, Izzat al Rasheq, a senior Hamas official, said Hamas had not yet abandoned the negotiations but accused Netanyahu and his government of trying to “block the path to reaching an agreement.”
Jerusalem / EFE
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2024-07-15 18:57:40
