Hamas declares martyrdom of its military commander Mohammed Deif
GAZA, Jan. 30 (YPA) – Hamas’ Movement armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, on Thursday declared the martyrdom of its military commander Mohammed Deif and a number of senior leaders.
Al-Qassam spokesman, Abu Obeida, said: “We announce to our great people the martyrdom of the Chief of Staff of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Al-Deif.”
He also announced the both leaders of Abu Tama’a, Raed Thabet, Rafe Salama, were martyred during the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa.
In mid-July, the Israeli occupation army said that it had carried out an airstrike on the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis and “targeted Mohammed Deif,” the General Commander of the Izz Ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
The enemy entity announced his assassination two weeks after mid-July, after he had survived 7 previous assassination attempts before the current aggression on Gaza, and he was at the top of the Israeli assassination list.
Mohammed Deif has held the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Qassam Brigades since the martyrdom of Salah Shehadeh, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Brigades. The Israeli enemy held him responsible for killing a large number of Zionists and carrying out a number of operations inside the occupied territories.
Who is Mohammed Deif?
Mohammed Deif, whose name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, called “Abu Khaled”, was born around 1965 in the Khan Yunis Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip, to a family that fled or was expelled during the 1948 Palestine war.
He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Islamic University in Gaza in 1988, and worked alongside his father in the field of spinning and upholstery, established a poultry farm, and worked also as a driver. He was sometimes forced to stop studying to support his family.
Deif is known to be a person who rarely speaks and rarely appears. It is said that he received the nickname “Deif” because he does not stay in one place for more than a day due to the enemy’s pursuit.
When Hamas was launched in 1987 after the first Palestinian Intifada, he joined its ranks.
Mohammed Deif was arrested in 1989, and spent 16 months in prison, and was accused of working in Hamas’s military apparatus.
After his release from prison, the Izz Ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades began to form militarily, and Deif was one of its founders.
He supervised the establishment of its branch in the West Bank before becoming its commander-in-chief after the assassination of his predecessor, Salah Shehadeh, in an Israeli raid in 2002.
Deif had been on the Israeli military’s most wanted list since 1995 for killing Israeli soldiers and civilians. He was detained by the Palestinian Authority at Israel’s request in 2000 before escaping months later. He had been targeted in many Israeli assassination attempts since 2001, surviving at least seven attempts on his life. His wife, infant son, and 3-year-old daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2014.
In 2015, Deif was placed on the US blacklist of “international terrorists,” and he was also placed on the European Union’s terrorism list last December.
Mohammed Deif contributed to developing Hamas’s tunnel network in the Gaza Strip and developed his expertise in bomb-making. Israel occupation claimed that he was the mastermind behind the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack that Hamas carried out on October 7, 2023.
Due to previous assassination attempts, the Qassam commander lost an eye and was seriously injured in one of his legs, and was nicknamed “the man with nine lives.”
Deif managed to survive 7 assassination attempts carried out in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, and in 2021, when the occupation tried to assassinate him twice.
The Israel occupation claimed that Deif was killed in an airstrike in al-Mawasi on 13 July 2024. Hamas has denied Deif’s death. In early November 2024 it was reported that Hamas had privately recognized his death, but Hamas released a statement disputing the newspaper’s report.
AA