The IDF targeted Hamas’s years-long and mythic supreme military commander Mohammad Deif on Saturday in the al-Muwasi humanitarian zone near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
There are many signs that Deif could be dead, with additional signs coming in over the day on Saturday, but due to the long range attack, the number of structures obscuring the area, the volume of casualties, and the many times Deif has been thought to be killed only to survive in the past, the situation is far from clear.
Further, all of the above factors mean that there may be no clarity on the issue for an extended period.
Since the current war started, Deif has emerged as Hamas’s No. 2 in command and, if killed, he would be by far the most important Hamas leader to be killed since the start of the war.
Previously, the IDF killed Hamas’s Marwan Issa and Saleh al-Arouri, Deif’s deputy and the deputy of Hamas’s leader outside of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.
But Deif has been the Hamas leader Israel has most sought to eliminate for years, at least until October 7.
Besides Deif, it is highly likely that Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, who has also been one of the few intermediaries for Gaza Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar regarding hostages, was killed in the same strike.
Sinwar became the No. 1 target for Israel following October 7.
The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, low sheds, and with tunnels not far away, but not in the immediate vicinity.
IDF intelligence believes that Salama and Deif were not in a tunnel.
Further, the IDF believes that Salama spent more time at the location with it being one of his primary areas of operation, whereas Deif likely arrived at the location on Saturday on a more transient basis.
IDF intelligence and the Shin Bet had only a matter of hours to act on what they considered highly precise intelligence tracking Deif’s location.
Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh reported that a security source noted that, as far as was known, no hostages were held at the scene of the strike. An additional two security sources reportedly stated that the attempted elimination of Deif occurred while the Hamas leader was above ground, as opposed to inside a tunnel.
Army Radio added that Deif and Salama had been hiding in a building near tents of displaced persons in the area.
Reports of civilian casualties
Between dozens to 90 Palestinians were killed in the strike, with the IDF estimating that most of those killed were Hamas terrorists, but not denying the possibility that some not insignificant minority of them could have been civilians.
The Prime Minister’s Office released a short statement about the attempted elimination, confirming that “the prime minister gave a standing directive at the beginning of the war to eliminate senior Hamas officials. He was updated on all developments during the night and continues to receive regular updates. The prime minister will conduct a situational assessment today with all the security forces and the National Security Council to discuss the next developments and steps.”
Palestinians in Gaza following IDF strike, July 13, 2024. (credit: mohammed fayq/social media)
On Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a press conference on the event, saying, “We still do not have confirmation that he was killed, but we have accurate information that tells us that no hostages were in the area of the strike.”
Earlier, a senior Hamas official said an Israeli Army Radio report that a strike on Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday had targeted Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was “nonsense.”
“All the martyrs are civilians, and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters, adding that the attack showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
”We say to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu that Mohammed Deif is listening to you right now and mocking your lies,” Al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas in Gaza, told Al Jazeera in response to the press conference. He claimed that Deif was not killed in the strike.
He also accused Netanyahu of attempting to assassinate Deif during negotiations for a deal to embarrass the mediators Qatar and Egypt and pressure Hamas into making concessions.
However, if Deif was killed, it would be a major morale blow to Hamas, and they would have strong reasons to cover it up.
Absent proof of life from Deif, Israel’s narrative that he may be dead will likely gain momentum over a period of weeks.
In the wake of the strike, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar convened an operational situation assessment.
Rotem Mai-Tal, the CEO of Asgard Systems, which develops military technology for defense industries, said that the aerial munitions used in the assassination were likely the advanced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs made in the USA, which were the bombs the US had been withholding a few months ago, Maariv reported.
“These are sophisticated kits that convert standard aerial munitions into advanced bombs guided by a laser and/or GPS-guided advanced seeker head (JDAM) based on advanced sensing and artificial intelligence technology produced by the USA and Israel,” Mai-Tal told Maariv.
Jordan and Egypt’s foreign ministries condemned the attack. Jordan claimed that “the tents of the displaced persons in Khan Yunis, an area that Israel had already classified as safe,” were attacked, and called on “the international community to act to provide protection for Palestinians, hospitals, and aid organizations operating in Gaza.”
Egypt announced that it “strongly condemns the Israeli attack in the Al-Mawasi area, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of Palestinians. Egypt demands that Israel stop harming civilian lives.”
Who is Mohammad Deif?
Deif was born Mohammad Masri in 1965 in the Khan Yunis Refugee Camp, a short distance from where Israel conducted the strike to eliminate the senior Hamas figure. He later became known as Mohammed Deif after joining Hamas during the first Intifada in 1987.
Jacob Eriksson, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the University of York, told France24 that “Deif” translates to “guest” and refers to his constant travel—a tactic used to survive Israeli attacks, however the Washington Post suggested in 2014 that he took his name from a character he played during a university production.
Only two years after joining the terror group, Deif was arrested but spent only 16 months in detention, a Hamas source told Reuters.
Deif developed the group’s network of terror tunnels and developed his bomb-making expertise.
During the war, IDF intelligence found videos of Deif confirming that he had lost an eye and sustained serious wounds in one leg in previous assassination attempts, though he was not as crippled as they had thought.
Having escaped numerous assassination attempts, Gazan fans dubbed him “the man with nine lives,” a play on the common saying that cats have nine lives.
Deif masterminded the military tactics of Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel in which terrorists murdered around 1,200 people and abducted over 250.
Deif has been considered an international terrorist by the US since 2015.
This is a developing story.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
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