Israel said Thursday that Mohammed Deif, the shadowy Hamas military leader it had targeted in an operation in the Mawasi area of southern Gaza last month, has been killed. The announcement came a day after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
The strikes on July 13 on an area packed with displaced people had left at least 90 Palestinians dead and 300 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The reclusive but powerful commander led Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, for more than two decades. Deif, 58, avoided public appearances, rarely giving statements or speeches, and had been photographed only a handful of times. Here’s what to know.
Who was Mohammed Deif, and what was his role in Hamas?
Deif, whose real name was Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, was born in Khan Younis in 1965 and became a founding member of the Qassam Brigades in 1991. He rose through the ranks and became the group’s leader in 2002, after the previous military commander was killed.
He was considered to be a key architect of Hamas’s long-term strategy against Israel.
The State Department designated him a terrorist in 2015, also saying he was the “mastermind of Hamas’s offensive strategy” during the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas. He was known for deploying suicide bombers and directing the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, it added. Deif was also widely seen as a chief strategist behind building tunnel networks to allow Hamas militants to infiltrate Israel.
Israel and the International Criminal Court have said he was one of the “masterminds” of the Oct. 7 attack – along with Yehiya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza. The ICC in May sought arrest warrants for Deif, as well as Sinwar and Haniyeh, citing reasonable grounds to believe the three were “criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians” in attacks by Hamas and other armed groups on Oct. 7 in Israel.
Deif’s public persona was shrouded in mystery, adding to his mystique among Hamas supporters in Gaza. “He’s a legend,” a member of a Hamas security detail told The Washington Post of Deif in 2014. Imad Falouji, a former senior Hamas leader, told The Post then that Deif kept a low profile, moving around with “different passports and different identities.” In university, he had a passion for theater, becoming a stage actor and setting up a theater company – and he was known to be a master of disguise.
Over the years, Deif had survived multiple attempts on his life – leading to him being nicknamed “the cat with nine lives.”
There are only a handful of known photos of Deif, including one of him masked, one of him as a young man and an image of his shadow that was broadcast on Hamas’s TV channel alongside an audiotape released after the Oct. 7 attack. The Times of Israel in January published an image that purportedly showed Deif relaxing.
“Today the rage of Al Aqsa, the rage of our people and nation is exploding. Our mujahideen [fighters], today is your day to make this criminal understand that his time has ended,” Deif said in the audio tape.
What happened during the July 13 operation?
An Israeli military official, speaking on background in line with protocol, said shortly after the operation that the Israel Defense Forces had “precise intelligence” that Deif was in a “compound” in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. He was targeted alongside his close aide Rafa Salameh, who led Hamas forces in Khan Younis, according to a joint statement July 14 by IDF and the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
At least 90 people were killed in the strike, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
An analysis of videos by The Washington Post showed that the strikes occurred in an area designated as a “humanitarian area” by Israel which has seen a large influx of displaced civilians seeking safety. Visuals showed what appeared to be one or more large craters at a blast site. People who were hundreds of feet away said they were blown off their feet by explosions.
Following Oct. 7, Deif had been thought to be hiding in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza.
Though Deif had evaded multiple Israeli assassination attempts, some members of his family had been killed in earlier strikes, including his wife, son and daughter in 2014.
What has the IDF said?
After weeks of speculation over Deif’s fate, the Israel Defense Forces wrote on X on Thursday: “We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated.”
The announcement came “after an intelligence check,” a separate joint statement from IDF and Shin Bet said.
“Deif worked closely with Hamas leader … Sinwar, and during the war he managed the terrorist activities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, issuing orders and instructions to the senior military wing of the organization,” IDF said.
Hamas did not immediately confirm or contradict the IDF announcement, though it had previously denied Deif had been killed.