How did Israel finally kill Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif?

Mohammad Deif is dead.

Israel said it killed the chief of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – in an airstrike in Gaza last month.

Deif, believed to be the mastermind of the October 7 attack, had survived so many assassination attempts that he was nicknamed ‘the cat with nine lives.’

It seems Deif’s luck finally ran out.

The announcement came a day after Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran.

But how did the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) eliminate Deif?

Let’s take a closer look:

According to CNN, the IDF said it had conducted a “precise, targeted strike” on a compound in southern Gaza on July 13.

Deif, and another Hamas commander, Rafe Salama, were at the compound in a designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis.

The Times of Israel reported that Deif was forced to leave the underground tunnels where he was hiding because of Israel’s military pressure on Hamas.

Deif then linked up with Salameh, who had staying at the compound for several weeks.

Israel’s fighter jets hovered over the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out.

Once the military confirmed the intel that Deif was at the compound, the IDF planes were given the go-ahead.

The strike was launched in minutes.

The two leaders were in a building that was hit by several heavy munitions.

The IDF put up footage of the airstrike on X:

At least 90 people were killed in the airstrike on the Al-Mawasi camp.

Images and videos from the camp showed bodies everywhere and destroyed tents.

The IDF announced the death of Salama last month.

However, it was unable to immediately confirm the death of Deif.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) announces that on July 13th, 2024, IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” the statement read.

“Deif initiated, planned, and executed the October 7th massacre, in which 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and 251 hostages abducted into the Gaza Strip,” the IDF added.

Hamas is yet to confirm Deif’s death.

The Washington Post quoted Hamas spokesperson Izzat al-Rishq as saying that “confirming or denying” the death of any of the group’s leaders “is a matter for the leadership” of Hamas’s military wing.

“It is not possible to confirm any of the published news,” he added.

“The killing of the master murderer Muhammad Deif, the ‘Bin Laden of Gaza,’ on July 13, 2024, is a big step on the way to eradicating Hamas as a military and governmental organization, and to achieving the goals of the war we set.”

“The high-quality and precise operation that was carried out was made possible by the best cooperation between the IDF and the Shin Bet, and those who head them,” he said. “The results of the operation make it clear that Hamas is an organization in disintegration, and that the terrorists must choose between surrender and death.

“The security establishment will pursue the Hamas terrorists – from the planners of the [October 7] massacre to the perpetrators — and will not rest until the mission is completed,” Gallant added.

Experts say Deif and Haniyeh’s deaths will have at best limited impact on Hamas.

“History has repeatedly demonstrated that while Israel is very effective in terms of assassinating senior Palestinian political figures, this has tended to have at best limited impact on [Hamas’s] abilities, on its development,” Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies and co-editor of Jadaliyya, told The Washington Post.

“I would not equate killing leaders with eradicating a movement. Those are two very different things, and Israel has proven quite successful with respect to the former but not at all successful with respect to the latter.”

Who was Deif?

Deif became head of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in 2002.

He was among Israel’s most wanted man for nearly three decades and on a US list of “international terrorists” since 2015.

“During the war, he commanded Hamas’s terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip by issuing commands and instructions to senior members of Hamas’s military wing,” the military said.

Deif, whose real name is Mohammed Diab al-Masri, was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1965.

The word Deif means “visitor” or “guest” and some say he chose it because he was always on the move with Israeli hunters on his trail, never spending more than one night in the same place.

In videos, Deif has appeared masked or shown in a silhouette, while rare photographs have circulated of one of Israel’s most wanted men.

In January, Israel released a picture of Deif showing him with one eye missing, without specifying when it was taken.

In 2014, Israel launched an air strike on Gaza, killing Deif’s wife and a seven-month-old son.

It was Deif who announced the start of the Hamas attack – operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” – in an audio message on October 7.

Deif became involved in Hamas in the 1980s when he was a student at the Gaza Islamic University.

He is said to have played a key role in the huge network of tunnels built beneath Gaza.

He was detained by Israel since the 1980s and spent about two years in a prison run by the Palestinian Authority. He was released or escaped, reports said.

In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested a warrant for his arrest – alongside with Yahya Sinwar, the chief of Hamas in Gaza who is still being hunted by Israel – for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hamas political leader Haniyeh, who was killed Wednesday in the Iranian capital, was also on that list.

The prosecutor has also sought warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Gallant.

During the October 7 attack, Hamas operatives also seized 251 people, 111 are still captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military campaign since then has killed 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

With inputs from agencies