The Israeli military announced on Thursday that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in a strike it carried out last month in the southern Gaza area of Khan Yunis. This confirmation comes a day after Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, as announced by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hamas.
“The IDF (Israeli army) announces that on July 13, 2024, IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” a military statement said.
“Deif initiated, planned, and executed the October 7 massacre,” the military added, referring to the Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the death of 1,197 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas denies Deif’s death in a strike
Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza reported that the July 13 strike killed more than 90 people, but Hamas denied that Deif was among them. The strike, suspected to have involved a 2,000-pound bomb (900 kilograms), left a giant crater around the house where Deif was said to have taken refuge with one of his deputies.
Deif, the head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, had been one of Israel’s most wanted men for nearly three decades and was on a US list of “international terrorists” since 2015.
The military said Deif had carried out several attacks against Israel over the years and operated along with Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza. “During the war, he commanded Hamas’s terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip by issuing commands and instructions to senior members of Hamas’s military wing,” it added.
During the Hamas attack, militants also seized 251 people, of whom 111 are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign since then has killed 39,480 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.