Hamas confirms death of military chief Mohammed Deif

Hamas armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Thursday night the killing of its military leader Deif and deputy military commander Marwan Issa in combat.

Israel initially announced in August 2024 that Deif had been killed in a July air attack. But Hamas denied the news at the time, telling reporters that Deif was “well and directly overseeing” the group’s operations.

According to the Israeli military, Issa was killed in March last year. At the time, senior Hamas officials told Al Jazeera that the group’s political bureau had not received evidence of Issa’s death.

Chief of al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida Abu Obeida has also confirmed the killing of several other Hamas military commanders, including Ghazi Abu Tamaa, the commander of weapons and combat services, Raed Thabet, commander of manpower and head of supplies unit, and Rafei Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade.

Deif was one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and led the force for more than 20 years. Deif was also believed to have developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise.

In August 2014, Deif’s wife and seven-month-old son were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in Gaza where the family was staying.

According to reports, Deif lost an eye and sustained serious injuries in one leg in one of Israel’s assassination attempts. His survival while running Hamas’s armed wing turned him into a folk hero among Palestinians.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, signalling the attacks that day on southern Israel were payback for Israeli raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.