Israel-Hamas war: Dozens reported dead in Gaza camp strike

The Israeli airstrike on al-Mawasi, a designated safe zone in Gaza's south sheltering displaced Palestinians, has killed at least 90 people, Gaza officials said, revising the earlier death toll of 71.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry also said around 300 people were wounded.

The projectiles hit a designated "safe zone" where hundreds of thousands of people were sheltering, according to humanitarian activists.

Israel claims to have targeted Hamas' military chief Mohammed Deif. It wasn't clear if Deif was killed in the explosion.

"Israel attacked Gaza today in an attempt to eliminate Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Rafa Salama. There is no certainty that the two were eliminated," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference.

Soldiers fighting in a densely populated, urban area still need to take "every precaution to distinguish between civilian and combatant," Michael Lynk, a law professor at Canada's Western University, told DW.

"Most leading human rights organizations that have examined both the Israeli claims and the facts (...) on the ground have concluded that Israel has been indiscriminate in its use of military force, resulting in these thousands of civilian deaths," the professor said.

"International law is very clear that, during a combat zone, the attacking armies have to distinguish very clearly between combatants and civilians as your target," said Lynk, who is a former UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories.

Lynk gave the interview hours after an Israeli attack on the southern part of Gaza killed at least 71 Palestinians and wounded almost 300, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Local media and witnesses said the strike hit a camp for displaced people. Israel's military says they were targeting two senior Hamas officials in an open area.

Israel often insists it is targeting Hamas militants during the offensive in Gaza, but there have been tens of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries.

Iran's newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said his country is not building nuclear weapons and lashed out at Israel as he laid out his foreign policy ideas in the country's state-run Tehran Times late on Friday.

In the editorial, titled "My Message to the New World," Pezeshkian reiterated that "Iran's defense doctrine does not include nuclear weapons," and urged the US to lift sanctions against Iran.

The new Iranian president stressed the importance of good relations with neighboring countries as well as close ties with Russia and China.

He also said his first foreign policy priority would be to secure a cease-fire in Gaza. Pezeshkian criticized Israel, which he said was adding "'genocide' to a record already marred by occupation, war crimes, ethnic cleansing" and possession of nuclear weapons.

Israel denies genocide allegations in the Gaza conflict and pursues a policy of ambiguity on nuclear weapons, never publicly confirming or denying the existence of a nuclear arsenal. Israeli leaders see Iran's nuclear and missile programs as its greatest existential threat. 

Widely described as a moderate, Pezeshkian won the presidential election in July after his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash. 

 Argentina's presidency has classified the Palestinian militant group Hamas as an "international terrorist organization," citing its October 7 assault on Israel and an "extensive history" of attacks.

A statement from President Javier Milei's office also said the libertarian Argentinian leader had "an unwavering commitment to recognize terrorists for what they are."

The move brings the South American country into line with Germany, the United States and several other countries.

On a visit to Israel in February, Milei likened Hamas' actions during the October 7 attacks to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has confirmed that a strike in southern Gaza in which dozens of Palestinians were reportedly killed targeted Mohammed Deif,  believed to be the man who planned the October 7 raids by Hamas in southern Israel.

Israel has long sought to eliminate Deif, who is thought to have eluded several attempts to kill him in the past.

Among other things, Deif is considered to be behind the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.

He is also responsible for enhancing the network of tunnels used by Hamas and for developing the group's expertise in bomb-making.

The official said it was still unclear whether Deif had died in the strike.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that an Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Khan Younis in the south of the Palestinian enclave has killed at least 71 people and injured some 289 others.

The ministry updated an earlier death toll of 20 after what it called a "horrific occupation (Israeli) massacre" at the Mawasi camp.

Israel Army Radio said on Saturday that the attack had targeted Hamas' military chief, Mohammed Deif, but that it was unclear whether he had been killed. 

A senior Hamas official, Abu Zuhri, told Reuters news agency that the Israeli claim was nonsense and said all those who died were civilians.  

The strike comes as the Israeli military continues its campaign in Gaza against Hamas, in retaliation for the October 7 terror attacks in Israel that left some 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians.

Hamas and other Palestinians groups also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 42 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died. 

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the US, Germany, EU and others.  

tj/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)