Hamas commander Mohammed Deif is targeted in Israeli airstrike in Gaza : NPR

TEL AVIV — Powerful Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of Palestinians and wounded many more Saturday in southern Gaza, officials said. An Israeli military official said the target was the head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Deif. But there was no immediate word on his status.

The Israelis bombed the city of Khan Younis and the nearby area of al-Muwasi, which has been designated a humanitarian safe zone by the Israeli military and where thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

More than 70 Palestinians were killed in the bombings at the two locations, many of them civilians, according to witnesses and the Gaza Health Ministry. Many more were wounded. This was the latest attack in a series of ongoing Israeli air operations directed at Hamas, but which have also inflicted heavy civilian casualties.

Shortly after the strike, reports began circulating that the target was Deif, a shadowy figure who has led the military arm of Hamas for more than two decades and has survived multiple Israeli attempts to kill him.

In a briefing, an Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack targeted Deif, as well as another senior Hamas commander, Rafah Salameh. The official added that the military struck an “operational compound” that was surrounded by trees, small buildings and sheds, which provided cover and made it difficult to surveil.

The Israeli military said it was still assessing the strike and provided no information on Deif.

Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making “false claims merely to cover up the extent of the horrific massacre.” The statement did not mention Deif.

The two top Hamas figures in Gaza are Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political leader in the territory, and Deif, who runs the military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.

Israel says these are the two Hamas leaders most responsible for orchestrating the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 2OO hostages. That attack ignited the current war in Gaza in which more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Shortly after the October attack, a Hamas TV channel released a recording claiming to show Deif. “Enough is enough,” the figure in the video said. He appeared only as a silhouette.

While Sinwar appeared publicly before Oct. 7, Deif has remained out of sight for decades. He was jailed by Israel for a little over a year in 1989-90, but was released. He has run the Hamas military wing since 2002, when his predecessor was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.

Back then, Deif was known as a master bomb-maker who provided the arsenal for Hamas’ suicide bombing campaign. He’s also credited for helping develop the Hamas rockets, which can now reach all the way from Gaza to Tel Aviv.

Israel has tried to kill him many times and he has reportedly suffered numerous injuries, including the loss of an eye. His wife and two of their small children were killed in a 2014 airstrike intended for Deif in Gaza.

His nom de guerre “Deif” means “guest” in Arabic, referring to the widely held belief that he never stays in one place for long, always changing locations in an attempt to stay a step ahead of the Israelis.