Mohammed al-Zaif ‘okay’, Israeli claims about his killing not true: Hamas

Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas leader, said in a live interview with Al Arabiya TV that Zaif is safe and aware of the claims of his death.

Senior Hamas leader and member of the organization’s political bureau, Izzat al-Rashq, told the Turkish news agency Anadolu that confirming or denying the martyrdom of Muhammad al-Zaif is the work of the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Before that, Israel The Israeli army claimed on Thursday that the head of the military wing of Hamas, “Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigade”, Muhammad al-Zaif, was killed in an airstrike in Khan Yunis, Gaza, last month on July 13.

In a statement, the Israeli military said: ‘The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that on July 13, 2024, IDF warplanes struck in the Khan Yunis area and confirmed this after intelligence assessments. It can be said that Muhammad Al-Zaif was killed in this attack.

A day before Israel’s claim, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in an Israeli attack in Tehran.

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It should be noted that on July 14, a senior official of Hamas said that the general commander of the group’s military wing “Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade” and who launched “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” against Israel, Mohammed al-Zaif, is an Israeli in al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza. Despite the air attack, they are ‘fine’.

A Hamas official told AFP on Sunday, without confirming his commander’s presence in the camp at the time of the Israeli attack: ‘Commander Mohammed al-Zaif is fine and is directly supervising the operations of Hamas’ military wing.’

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 90 people were killed in the attack on al-Mawasi camp on July 13, while hundreds were injured.

Who is Muhammad Al-Zaif?

Born in 1965 in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza, Muhammad al-Zaif joined the Palestinian group Hamas in 1990 and became its leader in 2002.

Muhammad al-Zaif’s birth name is Muhammad Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, but after surviving Israeli airstrikes, he adopted a nomadic lifestyle and later became known as al-Zaif, which means ‘guest’ in Arabic.