At least 71 Palestinians dead after Israeli army targets Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in Khan Younis

• An Israeli official has confirmed Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ military wing, was the target of a strike in Khan Younis.
• At least 71 Palestinians were killed in the attack and 289 others were injured, Gaza’s health ministry says.
• What’s next?The office of Benjamin Netanyahu says the prime minister will hold security talks throughout the day.

At least 71 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis and 289 others were injured, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday.

It remains unclear if the attack landed inside Muwasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, which stretches from northern Rafah to Khan Younis.

The Israeli army has confirmed it targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in Gaza, with the office of Benjamin Netanyahu saying the prime minister will hold security talks throughout the day.

It comes after Israeli forces pulled back from parts of Gaza City overnight, after a fierce, week-long offensive that met with Hamas resistance.

Rescuers said they found dozens of people dead amid wrecked homes and roads in the Palestinian enclave’s largest urban area.

The offensive, 10 months into Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas militants, took place as US-backed mediators sought to finalise a peace deal that would free the remaining hostages taken by the militants during the October 7 terrorist attack.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said teams had collected about 60 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces over the past week from the area of Tel Al-Hawa and the edges of the Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Residents and rescue teams told Reuters that Israeli snipers and tanks continued to control some high ground, even as tanks withdrew from some areas, warning residents against trying to return.

“There are bodies scattered in the streets, dismembered bodies, there are bodies of entire families, there are also bodies inside a home of an entire family that was completely burned,” Gaza Strip Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said on Friday, local time, in comments carried by media in Hamas-run Gaza.

Musa Al-Dahdouh recalled heavy aerial and tank fire and said Israeli forces detained and interrogated his two sons and their wives and children before allowing them to leave.

“My mother is in a wheelchair, my wife as well, as she has metal in her arms and legs. My grandson is paralysed in the legs, his father had to carry him on his back,” he said.

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Hamas media said four people working for the Al-Khair Foundation — a Muslim NGO based in Britain and Türkiye — were killed in an air strike at an aid distribution centre.

Israel claims secret tunnels found

Israel’s military says it found drones and other weaponry in a so-called “Hamas combat complex”, inside the former UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City.

“The troops engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorist cells that had fortified themselves inside the UNRWA compound,” it said, adding it also found an important Hamas tunnel nearby and weapons production under a university building.

It insisted it had evacuated civilians from the area before leading the offensive.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad say they attacked Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire, killing and wounding many.

There has been no Israeli Army comment on those claims.

Offensive flouted peace negotiations

Arab mediators, backed by the US, are trying to reach a ceasefire deal that would free Israelis held hostage by Hamas in return for many of the Palestinians jailed by Israel.

On Friday, a senior Hamas official blamed Israel for a failure to build on the momentum created when the Islamist faction dropped a key demand in the US-drafted ceasefire offer a week ago to clear the way for a deal.

The official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that Israel was “stalling and wasting time”.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he remained committed to the Gaza ceasefire framework and accused Hamas of making demands that contradicted it, without saying what those demands were.

Two Egyptian sources said on Thursday that talks had made progress but security arrangements and ceasefire guarantees were still being worked on.

Three sources told Reuters that part of the discussion concerned the possibility of installing an electronic surveillance system along the border of Gaza and Egypt, that could allow Israel to pull back its troops from the area.

Israel dismissed the report as “absolute fake news” saying that Mr Netanyahu insists that Israel remains in the area.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s forces have killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, medical authorities in Gaza say.

Returned Gaza City residents ordered out

Gaza City was home to more than a quarter of the residents of the Gaza region before the war.

The city was largely razed to the ground in late 2023, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to their homes in the ruins before Israel once again ordered them out.

Dozens of residents returned again on Friday to check the damage after civil emergency teams put out fires in the early hours.

Footage shows wrecked roads and buildings, including the former UNRWA headquarters.

Bodies wrapped in white shrouds and bearing the names of the dead women and men lay on the floor at Al-Ahli Hospital.