At least 71 people dead in Israeli attack on southern Gaza strip

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 71 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a designated humanitarian area, in an attack which Israel says targeted senior Hamas leaders. 

More than 289 people were injured, according to the health ministry's statement.

The strike reportedly hit the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, which the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, urging Palestinians to seek shelter there.
An Israeli official said the strike targeted the head of Hamas's military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an "open area" where there were "only Hamas terrorists and no civilians".

Rafa Salama, the Hamas commander for Khan Younis, was also targeted in the strike, the official said, calling the intelligence that led to the incident "accurate".
But Hamas said the claim that their leaders were targets is "false".

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

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold security talks through the day, his office said according to Reuters.
BBC Verify has analysed footage of the aftermath of the strike, confirming that it took place within an area designated as a humanitarian zone, according to the Israel Defense Forces website.

An eyewitness in al-Mawasi told the BBC that the site of the strike looked like an "earthquake" had hit, and videos 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.