News - Middle East: Hamas rejects claims that the Israeli regime’s earlier deadly airstrikes against a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip were aimed at assassination of the resistance movement’s leaders, saying Tel Aviv uses such claims as a pretext to massacre Palestinian civilians.

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy chief of Hamas’ Political Bureau, made the remarks to Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the regime targeted the al-Mawasi camp near the Gaza city of Khan Younis under the pretext of targeting Hamas’ leaders Mohammed Deif and Rafi' Salameh.

The strikes claimed the lives of at least 90 Palestinians, including women and children, and wounded more than 300 others.

“We affirm that the claims of the occupation and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu are false,” Hayya said, adding, “We say to Netanyahu that Mohammed Deif is listening to you now and mocking your false and empty statements.”

“The claim of targeting [our] leaders here and there is a ridiculous justification for killing women and children, and every Palestinian, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or anywhere else,” he noted.

“This is an attempt by the criminal army to market its crimes against our people.”

Ever since October, when the regime began waging a genocidal war against Gaza, it has been using similar claims on numerous occasions to stage brutal attacks against civilian targets across the coastal sliver.

Hayya described the so-called assassination attempt as a bid by the Israeli army “to restore its dignity” after its defeats in the face of the resistance, and a bid by Netanyahu “to shuffle the cards and embarrass the mediators and guarantors,” who have been trying to moderate negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the Israeli war.

He asserted, however, that the resistance “will not give Netanyahu what he wants,” and reiterated its cast-iron resolve to continue defending Gaza.

“The resistance and our people have proven their steadfastness in Gaza, demonstrating the army as a puppet and targeting it everywhere, turning its tanks into rubble.”

Source: Press TV