Top officials decided chance to assassinate Hamas’s Deif ‘couldn’t be missed’ – even if it stalls hostage talks: report

Hamas military wing commander Muhammad Deif as a young man (Courtesy)
Hamas military wing commander Muhammad Deif as a young man (Courtesy)

According to Channel 12’s Yaron Avraham, top Israeli officials considered the various dilemmas relating to carrying out an attempted assassination of Muhammad Deif in the hours before the strike was carried out this morning.

Without citing sources, Avraham says the assessment was that though the action may cause immediate tactical harm to negotiations with Hamas for a hostage release, it would be strategically beneficial, not least because it makes clear to Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar that Israel can reach him too.

The bottom line, says Avraham, was that “such an opportunity cannot be missed.”

Deif has been on Israel’s most-wanted list since 1995 for his involvement in the planning and execution of a large number of terror attacks, including many bus bombings in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The al-Qassam Brigades commander is believed to have played a central role in the shock October 7 assault on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were slaughtered and 251 dragged to Gaza as hostages when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel and launched the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

Deif has survived at least seven assassination attempts over the years, some of them injuring him to various degrees or killing his family members. The last two known attempts, according to the military, occurred in May 2021 when Israel and Gazan terror groups fought in an 11-day flare-up known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.

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