Israel’s army confirmed on Thursday that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in an air strike last month in the southern Gaza Strip.
The announcement came a day after Hamas and Iran said the Palestinian movement’s chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. Israel has not commented on that report.
“Mohammed Deif, the Osama bin Laden of Gaza was eliminated” on July 13, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.
The army said fighter jets had struck Khan Yunis on July 13 and “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike”.
He was killed along with one of his top commanders, Rafa Salama, the military said.
Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 90 people had been killed in that strike but Hamas has denied Deif was among them.
“Deif initiated, planned, and executed the October 7th massacre,” the military said.
On that day the Hamas group attacked southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,197 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
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.
