The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said at least 71 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on designated humanitarian areas, in an attack that Israel said targeted a senior Hamas leader.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Health, more than 289 people were injured.
Hamas said the attack hit the Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli military has designated a humanitarian zone and urged Palestinians to seek asylum there.
An Israeli official said the attack targeted Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, and that there were “only Hamas terrorists and no civilians” in the area.
According to Reuters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold security talks that day.
A witness in Mawasi told the BBC the scene of the attack looked like an “earthquake”, with video from the area showing smoking wreckage and bloody casualties being carried on stretchers. People can be seen desperately digging with their hands through the rubble of a large crater.
Video from a nearby Kuwait field hospital showed chaos and patients lying on the floor being treated.
Reuters quoted a Hamas official as saying the attack was a “serious escalation” that showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire.
Mohammed Deif, the head of the Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, is the Israeli military’s top target.
Deif has almost mythical status in Gaza After evading capture and surviving several assassination attempts..
He is believed to be one of the masterminds behind the October 7 Hamas attack in which some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages .
This led to a major Israeli military operation in Gaza, killing more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
