In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published on Thursday, Hamdan said Deif is “fine” after Israel claimed to have assassinated him.
Hamdan told AP that Hamas believes Israel mentioned Deif as the target of the July strike to “justify the massacre” that day, in which 88 Palestinians were killed in a bombing of the so-called humanitarian zone.
Israel’s military has claimed it has intelligence confirming that Deif was killed in a July 13 airstrike targeting him in the Gaza Strip.
The attack — which hit tents housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi camp in southern part of the besieged enclave — killed over 90 people, including women and children, and wounded more than 300 others.
Deif is among the founders of Hamas’s military wing in the 1990s and has led the force for more than 20 years.
Israel has identified him and Hamas’s Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, as the chief architects of the large-scale and surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the regime on October 7.
He is believed to have helped expand Hamas’s labyrinth of tunnels that run beneath Gaza.
