On Tuesday, it mentioned in a press release that an “intelligence verify” had confirmed the militant’s dying. “Mohammed Deif was eradicated,” the IDF wrote on X.
The announcement got here lower than 24 hours after Hamas confirmed the assassination of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Though Israel declined to touch upon the operation — in line with its posture of “strategic ambiguity” following earlier high-profile strikes and assassinations across the area — it was broadly seen as accountable.
A Hamas spokesperson, Izzat al-Rishq, mentioned in a assertion Thursday that “confirming or denying” the dying of any of the group’s leaders “is a matter for the management” of Hamas’s navy wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. “It’s not potential to substantiate any of the printed information,” he mentioned.
Analysts described the killings as a big blow to Hamas, but additionally one which it may recuperate from. Taken collectively, they mentioned, essentially the most vital short-term affect was prone to be the jeopardizing of negotiations to finish the warfare, which had been reported to have reached a crucial juncture within the days earlier than Haniyeh’s assassination. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is beneath vital stress from america, his primary political and navy ally, to discover a negotiated answer to the battle.
The Gaza Well being Ministry says that greater than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s navy operations in pursuit of Deif and the opposite architects of the assaults on Oct. 7 that sparked warfare. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants however says nearly all of the lifeless are girls and youngsters.
Deif was believed by Israel to have been a key determine in planning the assault, through which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and took greater than 250 hostage. Because the founding father of the Qassam Brigades, and its chief for greater than twenty years, Deif had lengthy been on Israel’s kill listing and survived no less than seven assassination makes an attempt, Israeli media reported.
He was focused alongside Salameh, chief of Hamas forces within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis, based on a joint assertion July 14 by the Israeli navy and the Shin Guess, Israel’s inner safety service. Salameh was certainly one of Deif’s “closest associates” and likewise performed a central position in planning the Oct. 7 assault, based on the assertion.
Deif, whose given identify was Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, was a shadowy determine, hardly ever photographed or seen in public, however he helped oversee the development of Gaza’s in depth tunnel community and was thought to direct day-to-day fight operations for Hamas.
Political analysts described the deaths of Deif and Haniyeh as a big blow to the motion, however cautioned that earlier assassinations of key figures didn’t considerably weaken the group. Israel killed a sequence of Hamas political and navy figures in 2003. By the tip of the next 12 months, it had assassinated the group’s founder and Haniyeh’s mentor, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and then-leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
“Historical past has repeatedly demonstrated that whereas Israel may be very efficient by way of assassinating senior Palestinian political figures, this has tended to have at greatest restricted affect on [Hamas’s] talents, on its improvement,” mentioned Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident fellow on the Middle for Battle and Humanitarian Research and co-editor of Jadaliyya, of Haniyeh’s assassination.
“I might not equate killing leaders with eradicating a motion. These are two very various things, and Israel has confirmed fairly profitable with respect to the previous however by no means profitable with respect to the latter.”
In Might, the chief prosecutor of the Worldwide Legal Court docket, Karim Khan, introduced he was making use of for arrest warrants for Deif and Haniyeh, in addition to Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yehiya Sinwar, who’s regarded as working operations from the enclave’s in depth tunnel community. He’s in search of to cost all three with warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.
Netanyahu, whose arrest warrant the prosecutor additionally sought, has pledged to maintain combating till Hamas is eradicated as a navy and political power, a purpose his personal generals have conceded is unrealistic.
“A method or one other, we’ll attain each senior member of Hamas,” Netanyahu mentioned after the July 13 strikes, including that no hostages had been within the space on the time. It was unclear how that conclusion had been reached.
Loveluck reported from Jerusalem and Rubin from Tel Aviv. Miriam Berger in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
