Israel: Elusive Hamas Commander Is Dead

Mohammed Deif, the shadowy commander of Hamas' military wing, has been killed, Israel's military confirmed Thursday. Deif, the highest-ranking Hamas commander to be killed during Israel's 10-month-war with Hamas, was the target of July 13 strikes on southern Gaza, which the Gaza Health Ministry said killed at least 90 Palestinians in a humanitarian zone. Afterward, Israel's military said it was still working to confirm whether Deif was among the dead. "We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated," the Israel Defense Forces wrote early Thursday on X.

Deif was considered one of the architects of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel. But he was on Israel's kill list long before that. He's led Hamas' armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, for more than two decades. He's thought to have directed day-to-day combat operations, overseen the construction of Gaza's tunnel network, and planned the bus bombings that killed dozens of people in Jerusalem in 1996, per the Washington Post and BBC. He reportedly survived at least seven prior assassination attempts, "including one in 2002 when he lost an eye," per the BBC.

"Born as Mohammad Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, he later became known as 'El Deif' or 'the Guest' due to his habit of staying in different houses every night for decades to avoid being tracked and killed by Israel," CNN reports. Hamas previously denied he was killed in the July 13 strikes. However, an Israeli military official tells CNN that new intelligence confirms he was. It's "a significant milestone" and "reflects the fact that Hamas is disintegrating," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday, per the BBC. The confirmation comes a day after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike in Tehran. Both Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel, per the Post. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)