In an attempt to avenge a deadly bus suicide attack in Tel Aviv, the Israelis began looking for a specific target. The target, one of Israel’s most wanted men, was in the crosshairs. Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a car in Gaza City in 2009.
Six people were killed in the incident which took place in broad daylight in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
However, this proved to be a lost opportunity for the Israelis.
For Deif, whose nom de guerre means “guest,” the practice is inspired by Palestinian fighters’ practice of staying overnight with different supporters to evade Israeli intelligence. Deif rarely stayed in one place for more than a single night.
The Israeli army had been looking for Deif for decades. Now he has been caught.
Israel confirms Deif’s death after days of uncertainty
After several days of suspense, Israel confirmed on Thursday that Hamas military chief Mohammed DeifHafiz Saeed, believed to be the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza last month.
A major attack on July 13, in which Israel claimed targeted a suspected Hamas military commander in Gaza, killed at least 90 people.
It may sound like the ‘same old story’, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that there was “still no absolute certainty” that Mohammed Deif was among the dead.
“We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif has been killed,” the Israel Defense Forces announced on X, a few days later. Ismael Haniyeh, who led Hamas’s political operations, was assassinated in Tehran.
Mohammed Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who had been a thorn in Israel’s side for decades, was killed in the eighth attempt.
Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Deif is credited with developing Hamas’s rocket arsenal and tunnel system. The extensive 700 kilometre long Gaza Metro.
Why did Israel want Mohammed Deif so much?
Israel’s frustration undoubtedly stems from the fact that Mohammed Deif is considered The mastermind behind the brutal October 7 massacre in southern Israelwhich she called her “9/11 moment.”
As Hamas launched a barrage of rockets, Deif named it the “Al-Aqsa flood” in an audiotape broadcast, signaling retaliation for Israel’s attacks on Islam’s third holiest site (the Al-Aqsa Mosque) in Jerusalem in 2021.
Deif, 58, began planning the operation in May 2021, the Reuters report said.
According to a report by The Guardian, he is believed to have trained militants, particularly the elite Nukhba forces who carried out the October 7 attack.
this surprise attack Hamas kills 1,200 Israelis and takes more than 250 hostageThis is the bloodiest attack in Israel’s 75-year history.
Deif, Gaza Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his deputy Marwan Issa were among three people Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government vowed to kill in response, according to Reuters.
Having renounced death seven times, what do we know about the god?
Deif, who reportedly lost his brother, nephew, niece, wife, 3-year-old daughter and 7-month-old son in the Israeli manhunt, is said to have survived seven assassination attempts before he was killed in an airstrike on July 13.
The mastermind lost an arm and a leg in an Israeli airstrike nearly 21 years ago, leaving him confined to a wheelchair, the Financial Times reported.
In May 2021, the Israeli military made two attempts in a week to kill Deif, but both attempts were in vain.
Despite the close encounters, Deif managed to maintain a low profile, rarely appearing in public. Until last year, only three photos of Deif had been seen: one from his 20s, a masked photo, an image of his shadow used during the October 7 broadcast, and one found among millions of computer files seized by Israel, according to The Guardian.
Deif, who rose to top positions in Hamas, was arrested by Israel in 1989 and detained for 16 months. Over the next decade, he ensured that Israel and Palestine did not hold peace talks.
Deif, who studied chemistry at the Islamic University of Gaza, was trained by “Engineer” Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash, Hamas’s chief bombmaker in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, he helped establish Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and later became its head.
Deif also founded the ‘Shadow Unit’ within the al-Qassam Brigades, an elite unit created to guard and hide enemy captives.
The attack targeting Deif in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on July 13 raised questions about his fate. While Israel refrained from officially announcing that Deif was dead, Hamas officials claimed he was alive and “well” after the attack.
Though there were uncertainties about his whereabouts, the IDF’s confirmation certainly brought closure to the decades-long search for the ‘guest’.
Deaf’s death has been confirmed by a news agency. The day after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in TehranAt the moment Israel has the upper hand.