On July 31, the death of the political leader of the Palestinian movement, Ismail Haniyeh, in an attack that Iran and Hamas attributed to Israel.
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that on July 13, 2024, IDF fighter jets bombed the Khan Yunis area, and following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the attack“, the military authorities said in a statement.
“Deif initiated, planned and executed the October 7 massacre“the army said in reference to the Hamas attack on southern Israel that caused 1,197 deaths, according to a report by AFP based on official Israeli data.
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The Health Ministry in Gaza, a Hamas-ruled territory, said: An attack on July 13 had killed more than 90 peoplebut the Islamist movement denied that its military chief was among the victims.
The bomb dropped by Israeli forces on the house where they suspected Deif had taken refuge with one of his subordinates left a huge crater.
As head of the armed wing of HamasThe Ezzedine al-Qasam Brigade, Deif era One of Israel’s most wanted men for nearly three decades and has been on the US list of “international terrorists” since 2015.
The Israeli army said that Deif perpetrated numerous attacks against Israel for years.
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Deif worked alongside Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief inside Gaza, the same source said.
“During the war, he commanded Hamas terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip. issuing orders and instructions to senior military officials Hamas,” the army added.
Born in 1965 in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, Deif went underground in the late 1980s. He apparently never spent more than one night in the same place. In the videos, he always appears with his face covered or represented by a silhouette, and few photographs of him have been published.
He was appointed in 2002 to head the armed wing of Hamas, following the death of his predecessor, Salah Shehadé, who was killed in an Israeli bombing. For the Islamist movement, Deif was the “chief of staff of the resistance”.
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As far as is known, before the operation of July 13, Deif had escaped at least six assassination attemptswhich earned him the nickname “cat with nine lives.”
In May, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested an arrest warrant for him and other senior Hamas leaders.
During the attack on October 7, 2023, Islamist commandos also kidnapped 251 people. The Israeli army estimates that 111 remain in Gaza, although 39 are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Gaza has left 39,480 people dead, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
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