Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a><\/span><\/span> said Saturday night \u201cthere still isn\u2019t absolute certainty\u201d he was killed. Hamas representatives gave no evidence to back up their assertion about the health of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.<\/p>\nThe Israeli military announced Sunday that Rafa Salama, a Hamas commander it described as one of Deif\u2019s closest associates, was killed in Saturday\u2019s strike. Salama commanded Hamas\u2019 Khan Younis brigade. The statement gave no update on Deif, who has long topped Israel\u2019s most-wanted list and has been in hiding for years.<\/p>\n
Hamas rejected the idea that mediated cease-fire discussions had been suspended after the strike. Spokesperson Jihad Taha said \u201cthere is no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations\u201d but added that \u201cefforts and endeavors of the mediators remain ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The killing of Deif would mark the highest profile assassination of any Hamas leader by Israel since the war began. It would be a huge victory for Israel and a deep psychological blow for the militant group. Netanyahu said all of Hamas\u2019 leaders are \u201cmarked for death\u201d and asserted that killing them would move Hamas closer to accepting a cease-fire deal.<\/p>\n
Hamas political officials insisted that communication channels remained functional between the leadership inside and outside Gaza after the strike in the territory\u2019s south. Witnesses said it occurred in an area that Israel had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians. Israel\u2019s military would not confirm that.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, some survivors were angry that the attack targeting Deif occurred without warning in an area they had been told was safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the first hit, and my son came screaming, \u2018Daddy, daddy\u201d and took cover with me,\u201d said Mahmoud Abu Yaseen, who clutched his children but then woke up in the hospital to find his son had died. The family had already been displaced five times since the war began. \u201cWhere do we go?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
A United Nations official described utter chaos at Nasser hospital where victims were taken, many treated on bloodstained floors with few supplies available.<\/p>\n
\u201cI witnessed some of the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza,\u201d Scott Anderson said in a statement. \u201cI saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment and others separated from their parents.\u201d He said restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza hamper efforts to provide needed medical and other care.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the pilots who carried out the strike and said Hamas is being eroded every day, with no ability to arm itself, organize or \u201ccare for the wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least 300 people were wounded in the strike, one of the deadliest in the nine-month war sparked by Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage.<\/p>\n
More than 38,400 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments since then, according to the territory\u2019s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed at least 14 people at the gate of a school used as a shelter for displaced people, according to an Associated Press journalist who visited two hospitals. Children were among the 15 others wounded. Israel\u2019s military in a statement said it struck \u201cterrorists\u201d operating in the area of a school run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n
Also on Sunday, police said a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem carried out a car-ramming attack in central Israel that injured four Israelis, two of them seriously. Israeli border police at the scene shot dead the attacker after he hit people waiting at two bus stops along a busy road. Israel\u2019s military said four of its personnel were wounded, two of them severely.<\/p>\n
Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai said such attacks were often \u201ctriggered\u201d by events like Saturday\u2019s airstrike in Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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