Israel says Hamas military leader killed in airstrike

The Israeli military says it has confirmed that Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif was killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip last month.

Deif was targeted in an attack on a complex in the Khan Younis area on July 13. Hamas has yet to confirm his death.

Israel says Deif was one of the figures responsible for planning the October 7 attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage.

On Wednesday, Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh has been killed during a visit to Iran. Israel has not commented directly on his death.

In a statement on Thursday, the Israeli military said “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was killed” in the July 13 airstrike.

Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said at the time that the air strike killed more than 90 people, but denied that Deif was among the dead.

Deif is widely considered the second-ranking Hamas official in Gaza, after Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in the territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Deif’s death was “a milestone” in the process of dismantling Hamas.

“This operation reflects the reality that Hamas is disintegrating and Hamas terrorists can surrender or will be eliminated,” he added.

Mohammed Deif was appointed head of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Hamas movement, in 2002.

For decades, he was considered one of Israel’s most wanted men – and survived seven assassination attempts.

Reports in Israeli and Palestinian media said Deif was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza in 1965, when the territory was occupied by Egypt.

As a young man in the 1980s, he joined Hamas and quickly rose to fame.

Israel accuses him of planning and directing a bus bombing that killed dozens of Israelis in 1996, and of involvement in the capture and killing of three Israeli soldiers in the mid-1990s.

Deif is also known to have helped design and build tunnels that allow Hamas militants to infiltrate Israel from Gaza.

In 2014, Israel attempted to kill Deif with an airstrike on a house in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing Deif’s wife, Widad, and their infant son, Ali. Israel thought it had also killed Deif, but he was not in the building at the time.

During the current conflict, Deif is believed to have directed Hamas military operations from inside underground tunnels inside Gaza.

Israel’s confirmation of Deif’s death comes at the end of a tumultuous week in the Israel-Gaza conflict, raising fears of a wider regional war.

On Saturday, 12 Israeli children and teenagers were killed. after a rocket hit a football stadium in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Lebanon-based Hezbollah, saying it would “pay a heavy price”.

On Tuesday, Israel responded with an airstrike on Beirut that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and four others, including two children.

Hours later, Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh was killed in an attack on the building where he was staying during a visit to the Iranian capital Tehran.