Report: Hamas courier gave intel on Deif’s location, leading to Israeli airstrike that killed him

A Hamas courier passed on the location of the commander of the terror group’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, leading to his assassination in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, according to a Saudi report.

According to a Hamas source quoted by the Al-Arabiya outlet, says the courier had been carrying messages from Hamas’s Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana, who leaked the details of where Deif and Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh, who was also killed in the strike, were planning to meet.

The airstrike was carried out when the courier confirmed that the two had entered the building, according to the report.

Israel has said that fighter jets patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out and that it was called in within a few minutes of receiving the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound.

The IDF released footage of the July 13 strike when it confirmed Deif’s death earlier this month.

The Al-Arabiya report claims that Israel has also attempted to assassinate Shabana three times amid the ongoing war in Gaza based on intelligence provided by the same courier.

He also reportedly handed over maps of Rafah including details of weapons stashes in Hamas’s subterranean tunnel network.

According to the report, the Palestinian “agent” was being investigated.