 "Mohammed Deif: The life and death of the wheelchair-bound Hamas military chief")
“We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated.”
Israel’s military on Thursday (August 1) confirmed that Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ second in command, was killed in a strike in Gaza on July 13.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Deif was targeted in a strike at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade, in the Khan Younis area, on July 13. While the IDF had confirmed the death of Salameh after the strike, it did not have final information regarding Deif. However, now, it could confirm the death of Deif.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the confirmation of the killing of Deif is a “big step” towards eradicating the terror group. “The killing of the master murderer Mohammed 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 organisation, and to achieving the goals of the war we set,” wrote Gallant on X, along with a photo in which he is apparently crossing Deif off with a black marker on a wall chart depicting the structure of the terror group.
The news of Deif’s death comes a day after the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh . But who was Mohammed Deif, the shadowy figure, better known as The Guest, who climbed to the highest rungs of Palestinian leadership?
Deif’s early life
Deif, as Mkhaimar Abusada – a professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza – told Medium, is seen as a “sacred and highly respected figure” among Hamas and Palestinians. But that wasn’t always the case.
He came from nothing. He was born Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza during the 1960s, which was at the time under the control of Egypt. The Financial Times reports that either Deif’s uncle or father participated in the sporadic raids of the 1950s by armed Palestinians on the same stretch of land where fighters infiltrated on Saturday.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsLittle is known about him. There’s only a single photograph of him. But according to early friends and people around him, he was gentle, and had a good sense of humour.
As per security dossiers made on him, he was a student at the Islamic University of Gaza, a hotbed for the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood’s style of political Islam.
Deif’s role in Hamas
In his 20s, Deif joined the Hamas. In 1996, he was held responsible by the Israelis for the deaths of many in suicide bombings, including the one that claimed over 50 lives. It is said that these bombings were Deif’s response to the Oslo Peace Accords signed in the early 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Deif, as well as Hamas, believe the accords effectively meant a loss of territory for Palestinians.
Believed to be a student of Yahya Ayyash, a bomb-maker nicknamed “The Engineer,” who was assassinated by Israel in 1996, Deif’s bomb-making skills became known through the region.
He then further became more entrenched in the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. An Israeli official has also said that it was Deif’s efforts that led to Hamas developing its rudimentary rockets. Today, Hamas is known to have a huge stockpile of rockets that it uses against Israel.
The Israeli official, as per the report in the Medium, also said that Deif sought high-impact targets such as settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories, buses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and personally oversaw rocket barrages. He didn’t agree to ceasing hostilities.
In 2002, he assumed leadership of the Brigades after its previous leader, Salah Shehade, was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Hiding in the shadows
Deif was not fond of public appearances and was often sequestered away. He also earned the nickname, The Guest, for his penchant for spending nights under different roofs.
However, his actions earned him the attention of Israel’s intelligence and security agencies, who put him right on top of the “most wanted” list. There’s also been a number of assassination attempts against him; the Daily Mail reports that he has survived five assassination attempts that saw both of his legs and an arm blown off and his wife and two children killed. As per some reports, he lost an eye, while others state that he was wheelchair-bound.
Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist specialising in security affairs, once told the New York Times: “Deif is the only prime military figure in Hamas to have survived so long. The fact that he was able to escape multiple assassination attempts and recover from severe injuries has built him the image and prestige of a bulletproof legend.”
‘The new Osama bin Laden’
Declared a terrorist by the United States in 2009, Deif was a skilled commander and mastermind of Hamas’ military strategy.
According to Mkhaimar Abusada, Deif was “exactly like Osama Bin Laden. This was an arch-murderer.”
Like Osama, he too had a taste for the theatrics, and this love for drama came from his time at an acting troupe he joined when he was at the Islamic University of Gaza.
It is reported that it was Deif’s clever planning that eventually saw the infiltration of 1,000 Hamas men into Israel, wreaking havoc and taking hostages on October 7 last year.
Following the first few hours of the attack, Deif had even put out a statement, calling it “the day of the great revolution.”
He had urged Israeli Arabs to take up arms, and encouraged Arabs on Israel’s borders to join in the attack. “Today, the people are bringing back the revolution and reviving the March of return,” he said, asking Arabs in Jerusalem and inside Israel, in the Negev, the Galilee and the Triangle area to “set the earth on fire under the feet of the occupiers.”
Blow to Hamas
The confirmation of Deif’s death will be a huge blow to Hamas. This is the second big name that the group has lost in quick succession. Earlier on Wednesday (July 31), Hamas announced that its political head, Ismail Haniyeh, had been killed in Iran by an “airborne projectile”. It has vowed revenge against Israel, who hasn’t yet commented on the leader’s demise.
With inputs from agencies
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