IDF confirms Muhammad Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in Gaza strike last month

Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, the IDF has confirmed.

The military says it obtained intelligence confirming his death in the last few hours.

Deif was targeted in a strike at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in the Khan Younis area, on July 13.

A day later, Salameh’s death was confirmed by the military, but the IDF said it did not have final information regarding Deif.

The IDF believed that its intelligence indicating that Deif arrived at a compound belonging to Salameh was highly accurate, and that the pair were together in the building that was targeted with several heavy munitions.

Israeli fighter jets had patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out, after the IDF had early indications that Deif had joined Samaleh. At any given moment, two jets were in the air above the site.

Once the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound was confirmed by the military, the jets were given the order to strike, which was carried out within just a few minutes.

The IDF releases footage of the strike.

Deif, 58, who has commanded the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades for over two decades, has long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel.

He was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel, the deadliest attack in the country’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed and around 251 others dragged to Gaza as hostages.