The Israeli military said on Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.
Israel targeted Deif in a strike on July 13 that hit a compound on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, but there had been no immediate confirmation he was killed.
More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were killed in the strike, Gaza health officials said at the time.
In a statement on Thursday, the Israeli military said that “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike”.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Ismail Haniyeh claps as newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks while deputy leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Kassem, left, sits during the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Pezeshkian in Tehran on Tuesday (Vahid Salemi/AP)
The Israeli confirmation came a day after an apparent Israeli airstrike in Tehran killed Hamas’s top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
Israel has not confirmed or denied being behind the attack, but Iran has vowed retaliation.
Along with Deif and Haniyeh, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, but he has so far remained elusive.
Israel says Sinwar and Deif were the masterminds of the October 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants rampaged in southern Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
One of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s, Deif led the unit for decades.
Under his command, it carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis on buses and at cafes and built up a formidable arsenal of rockets that could strike deep into Israel.