The Israel military’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi has defended the missile attack on displaced people in Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, saying the operation targeted two Hamas officials and laid the blame for the 90 people killed in the attack on Hamas, Al Jazeera reports.

Halevi did not mention the huge civilian death toll from the Israeli Air Force’s missile attack on Saturday, but did stress that no Israeli captives “were harmed in the strike”.

“It is very important for me to emphasize this,” he said in a statement.

The Israeli military’s international spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, also defended the attack, which he described as “a precise, intelligence-based strike” despite it killing so many civilians.

Shoshani also blamed Hamas for the civilians killed by Israel’s Air Force in the “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, which he said had been “exploited” by Hamas to “continue operating”.