Mohammed Deif, the army commander of Hamas in Gaza, has escaped one other Israeli try to kill him and is doing “effective”, a senior official of the Palestinian group says.
The Hamas official’s assertion on Sunday adopted experiences that Deif was focused in an enormous Israeli air strike on the besieged territory’s southern space that killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 others.
“Commander Mohammed Deif is effectively and instantly overseeing” the operations of the Hamas army wing, the official advised AFP information company.
Israel says its Saturday bombing of the al-Mawasi camp, a delegated humanitarian zone in Gaza, was aimed toward killing Deif, who has lengthy topped Israel’s most needed listing.
In response to the Hamas declare, Israel’s Chief of the Common Employees Herzi Halevi stated in a televised assertion on Sunday that Hamas is “concealing the outcomes” of its air strike on a compound the place Deif was allegedly hiding.
“It’s nonetheless too quickly to sum up the outcomes of the assault, these which Hamas is making an attempt to cover,” Halevi stated.
Deif was one of many founders of Hamas’s army wing, the Qassam Brigades, within the Nineties and has led the drive for greater than 20 years. He’s additionally stated to be a key determine who deliberate suicide bombings resulting in the deaths of dozens of Israelis.
Israel recognized him and Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, because the chief architects of the October 7 assault that killed at the least 1,139 individuals in southern Israel and triggered its battle on Gaza.
On the morning of October 7, Hamas had issued a uncommon voice recording of Deif asserting the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, signalling the assault was payback for Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest web site.
Deif, 58, hardly ever speaks or seems in public. So when Hamas’s TV channel introduced he was to talk on October 7, Palestinians in Gaza knew one thing vital was afoot.
Talking in a relaxed voice within the recording, Deif stated Hamas had repeatedly warned Israel to cease its crimes towards Palestinians, to launch the prisoners, and to halt its expropriation of Palestinian land.
“Immediately the fashion of Al-Aqsa, the fashion of our individuals and nation is exploding. Our mujahedeen [fighters], right this moment is your day to make this prison perceive that his time has ended,” Deif stated.
‘Folks hero’ from Khan Younis
Born in 1965 within the Khan Younis refugee camp, arrange after the 1948 Arab-Israeli Warfare, Mohammad Masri turned referred to as Mohammed Deif after becoming a member of Hamas in the course of the first Intifada, or Palestinian rebellion, in 1987.
Deif has a level in sciences from the Islamic College in Gaza, the place he studied physics, chemistry and biology. He headed the college’s leisure committee and infrequently carried out on stage.
In 1989, in the course of the top of the primary Palestinian Intifada, Deif was arrested by Israel and launched after 16 months in detention. He turned the top of the Qassam Brigades in 2002 after Israel killed his predecessor and founding chief, Salah Shehadeh.
The a number of makes an attempt on his life began after he succeeded Shehadeh.
Deif means “customer” or “visitor” in Arabic, and a few say that’s as a result of the Hamas army commander is all the time on the transfer with Israeli hunters on his path.
In line with experiences, Deif misplaced a watch and sustained critical accidents in a single leg in considered one of Israel’s assassination makes an attempt. His survival whereas operating Hamas’s armed wing turned him right into a “folks hero” amongst Palestinians.
Rising up the Hamas ranks over 30 years, Deif is believed to have developed the group’s community of tunnels and its bomb-making experience.
In August 2014, Deif’s spouse and seven-month-old son had been killed in an Israeli air strike that focused a home in Gaza the place the household was staying.
In Might, the Worldwide Prison Court docket’s prosecutor stated he had requested arrest warrants for Deif, Sinwar and one other Hamas determine over the October 7 assault. Warrants had been additionally issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s response that thus far has killed at the least 38,584 individuals in what rights teams describe as an ongoing genocide.