The attack on Saturday on the Israeli-designated “safe zone”, located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, involved fighter jets and drones, according to witnesses who spoke with Al Jazeera.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering there.

The Israeli military claims it was targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, and later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not certain Mr Deif had been killed in the strike.

A witness in Al-Mawasi told the BBC that the site of the strike looked like an “earthquake” had hit.

Footages from the area show smouldering wreckage and bloodied casualties being loaded onto stretchers.

People can be seen trying desperately to pick through the rubble of a large crater with their hands.

In the aftermath of the strike, BBC’s analysts confirmed that it occurred within an area shown on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian zone.

Mr Netanyahu said he gave the order for the operation to go ahead after being briefed by his general security forces.

He said he wanted to know if there were no hostages nearby, the extent of the collateral damage and what kinds of weapons would be used.

During the news conference, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his promise to eradicate all of Hamas’s senior members. “Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas.”

Later, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, quoted by the AFP news agency, accused Mr Netanyahu of seeking to block a ceasefire in the Gaza war with “heinous massacres”.

Hamas said the claim that their leaders were targets was “false”.

“It is not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later,” Hamas said in a statement.

Al Jazeera reports that Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy head in Gaza, claimed that Mr Netanyahu had wished to declare a “fake victory” and that claims about targeting the Hamas leaders were false.

“Mohammad Deif is listening to you now and mocking your false, empty statements,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa condemned Israel’s “genocidal crimes” in Gaza, saying that Palestinians were already “going through a very difficult stage.”

Mr Mustafa said Israel’s actions were more broadly targeting the Palestinian project as a whole and included Israel’s goal of establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

After the strike, Hanan Ashrawi, a scholar and activist, said the attack on Al-Mawasi had “turned all of Gaza into one massive death zone”.

“American bombs and shells rain down on Gaza while the Israeli government and thugs succeed in preventing any form of medical, food, or fuel supplies from reaching the devastated population,” she said in a post on X.

World Leaders react

Riyadh called for “activating international accountability mechanisms” against Israeli abuses.

“The Foreign Ministry condemns in strongest terms the

continuation of genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli war machine, the latest of which was the targeting [of] displaced people’s camps in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip,” the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

On X, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned the attack that he said “seems to have provoked a carnage in Muwasi refugee camp, designated safe zone by Israel.”

“Wars have limits enshrined in international law; the end can’t justify all means. We condemn any violation,” he added.

Direct attacks on civilians in designated “safety zones” are potential violations of international humanitarian law.

In a statement, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israel’s “ongoing violations against the rights of Palestinian citizens” add serious “complications” to achieving a ceasefire deal.

Egypt has been among the countries working to mediate such an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli raids on the al-Mawasi area,” the Foreign Ministry said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked and saddened” by the Israeli air raids on X.

“The [Israeli military] stated that they were targeting two senior members of Hamas,” Mr Guterres said. “The Secretary-General underlines that international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, must be upheld at all times.”

Al Jazeera reported Columbia’s President Gustavo Petro as saying the attack is the “greatest injustice.”

“I am even more outraged because this destruction of international human law is a prelude to the barbarism they want to unleash on all the oppressed people of the earth,” he said.

The Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also “strongly condemned” Israel’s “relentless attacks against Palestinians”, including Saturday’s attack on the al-Mawasi camp.

“This heinous and appalling attack, which took place inside an area Israel designated itself as a safe zone for Palestinians, is a flagrant disregard for all human life,” the ministry said in a statement shared on X.

Similarly, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attack on al-Mawasi was the “latest crime in the series of crimes committed by the child-killing Zionist regime.”

“The Zionists have once again brutally shown that in order to compensate for the defeats suffered on the battlefield with the resistance, they do not recognise any humane and moral red line towards the defenceless residents of the Gaza Strip, but they must know that insisting on this path is nothing but a wider global hatred,” Mr Kanaani said in a post on X.

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