Israeli army announces ‘elimination’ of Hamas military leader in Gaza

The military leader of the Palestinian extremist movement Hamas, Mohammed Deif, was killed on 13 July during an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said on X on Thursday.

Deif was the commander-in-chief of the al-Qassam brigades, the military branch of Hamas. The organisation initially reported that Deif was still alive. Rafa Salama, the commander and second in line of the al-Qassam brigades, was also killed in the same attack. Israel announced his death the day after the strike.

The two are said to have been hiding among civilians. According to Hamas, 90 people were killed in the attack. Deif was one of the founders of the military wing of Hamas in the 1990s and had been leading the al-Qassam brigades for more than 20 years. Israel held him responsible, together with the supreme Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, for the terrorist attack in Israel on October 7 last year.

The 58-year-old Deif was born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Israel has tried to eliminate him several times and he is thought to have lost an eye in an earlier attack. In August 2014, Deif's wife and seven-month-old son were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. For years, he was on the most-wanted list.

Israel killed the political leader of Hamas abroad, Ismail Haniya, in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday.

^{© PHOTO AFP}