A picture launched by the Israeli army on August 1, 2024 reveals an undated portrait of Mohammed Deif, head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the army wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, at an undisclosed location. The Israeli army introduced on August 1, 2024 that Hamas army commander Mohammed Deif had been killed in an assault he carried out final month within the Khan Yunis space of southern Gaza. | Photograph credit score: AFP/Israeli army
The Israeli army stated on August 1, 2024 that it had confirmed that the pinnacle of Hamas’ army wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. The announcement comes a day after an obvious Israeli strike within the Iranian capital killed Hamas’ prime political chief.
Israel believes that Deif, the pinnacle of Hamas’s military, and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s prime chief in Gaza, had been the principle architects of the Oct. 7 assault that killed some 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and sparked the struggle between Israel and Hamas. Sinwar is believed to nonetheless be hiding in Gaza.
Hamas stated Deif survived the July assault in Gaza and didn’t instantly touch upon the military’s affirmation announcement.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind Tuesday’s assault in Tehran that killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief. The killing of two of Hamas’s most senior figures marks a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has stated he won’t finish the Gaza marketing campaign till Israel destroys Hamas’s army capabilities.
Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant stated the strike that killed Deif was a “important milestone” on the trail to reaching the struggle’s objectives. “The outcomes of this operation mirror that Hamas is a disintegrating group,” he wrote in X.
The killings might push Hamas to harden its place in ceasefire negotiations, or to withdraw altogether. Iran has vowed revenge for the assault on its territory, elevating fears of an all-out regional struggle.
On July 13, Israel attacked Deif in a compound outdoors the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis. The military then stated one other Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, had been killed. Greater than 90 individuals, together with displaced civilians in close by tents, had been killed within the assault, Gaza well being officers stated on the time.
In a press release launched Thursday, the Israeli army stated that “following an intelligence evaluation, it may be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was killed within the assault.”
In its 10-month marketing campaign of bombings and offensives in Gaza, Israel has killed some 39,480 Palestinians and wounded greater than 91,100, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry, whose tally doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Greater than 80 % of the inhabitants of two.3 million individuals have been pushed from their properties, the overwhelming majority crammed into tent camps within the southwestern nook of the territory with restricted meals and water.
Deif was one of many founders of Hamas’s army wing, the Qassam Brigades, within the Nineties and led the unit for many years. Below his command, the unit carried out dozens of suicide bombings in opposition to Israelis on buses and in cafes and constructed up a formidable arsenal of rockets that might attain giant components of Israel and sometimes did so.
He remained a mysterious and clandestine determine in Gaza. He by no means appeared in public, was not often photographed and was solely sometimes heard in audio statements. He survived a collection of assassination makes an attempt by Israel.