Strike 'killed one of two October 7 masterminds'

The Israeli military said Rafa Salama, Hamas' Khan Younis brigade commander, was killed in an air strike on Saturday that also targeted the head of the group's armed wing, Mohammed Deif.

Salama, it said, was one of Deif's closest associates and was involved in planning Hamas' October 7 attack.

His death, "significantly impedes Hamas' military capabilities," it said.

Hamas has not confirmed Salama's fate, although it has denied Saturday's strike on the Al-Mawasi camp, which killed at least 92 people and left 300 injured, that targeted Deif had succeeded.

"Commander Mohammed Deif is well and directly overseeing" the operations of the Hamas military wing, an official said.

Israel said it had targeted Deif, the head of the A-Qassam Brigades, and Salama.

Deif has been among Israel's most wanted men for decades and is blamed for the killings of civilians and soldiers. There have been at least six previous attempts on his life.

He announced in a message the start of Hamas's surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel, which sparked the Gaza war, and the military has labelled him and Salama "two of the masterminds."

The news of Salama's demise came after confusion in which one Hamas official says the group was pulling out of ceasefire talks, only for another to deny that was the case.

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, described as "baseless" a report that the group will quit the talks. Israel's latest "escalation" had been engineered to "block the way to reaching an agreement," he said.

That came after Ismail Haniyeh, the group's Qatar-based political chief, is said to have told international mediators of the "decision to halt negotiations due to [Israel's] lack of seriousness, continued policy of procrastination and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres of civilians."

Talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with US support, have for months tried but failed to bring a halt to the war in the Gaza Strip.

Several Palestinians were killed or wounded yesterday in an airstrike that hit a school in central Gaza.

Hamas put the death toll at 12 killed, adding that the school was housing displaced people.

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