Israel said it had killed Deif in an air attack in July, but Hamas did not confirm his death until Thursday.Hamas says its top military commander Mohammed Deif has been killed.
The Israeli military had said it killed Deif in an air attack in July, but the Palestinian group had not confirmed his death until Thursday.
The spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said his death was “befitting”.
“This is befitting of our leader Mohammed Deif, who exhausted the enemy for more than 30 years,” Abu Obeida said.
“How, by God, could Mohammed Deif be mentioned in history without the title ‘martyr’ and without the medal of martyrdom?” Abu Obeida asked.
Deif was one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s and led the force for more than 20 years. He is reported to have planned attacks leading to the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Deif was also believed to have developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, signalling the Hamas-led attacks that day on southern Israel were a response to Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. Advertisement
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided issued an arrest warrant for Deif “for alleged crimes against hu …
