The Israeli Defense Force has confirmed that a strike was launched in Gaza targeting two high-ranking Hamas leaders, one with a direct role in plotting the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israeli authorities announced early Saturday morning that the strike hit a Hamas compound in al-Mawasi in Southern Gaza.
"Mohammed Deif, the top military commander of Hamas, was the target of an Israeli strike today in al-Mawasi," two Israel sources told Fox News Digital. "Currently a battle damage assessment is taking place to determine if he was killed. Deif is one of the masterminds behind the October 7th massacre."
The alleged Hamas-controlled compound was located in a civilian area containing tent shelters for displaced refugees.
The Hamas-run Gaza Public Health Ministry has claimed the strike killed a total of 71 people.
"Cynically Hamas leaders always embed themselves within civilians and inside civilian areas," a military official said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We know other militants and guards were present in the compound and the assumption is that they are dead. We cannot relate to numbers of Palestinian casualties."
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The IDF does not believe any Israeli hostages were present within the compound.
Deif has been the commander of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades since Marwan Abdel Karim Ali Issa was killed in an airstrike conducted on Nuseirat in March.
The Hamas commander was also identified as a key architect of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that killed over 1,100 Israelis and launched the ongoing conflict.
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Rafa Salama, Hamas's commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade, was also a target in the attack and believed to have been inside the compound.
"In a joint IDF and ISA activity based on precise intelligence, the IDF's Southern Command and the IAF carried out a strike in an area where two senior Hamas terrorists and additional terrorists hid among civilians," Israeli authorities announced in a separate statement Saturday. "The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds."
Saudi news outlet Al Hadath is reporting that Salama was killed in the strike, but that information has not been verified by Israeli or U.S. officials.
