Six months later, Hamas officially admits Muhammad Deif killed by Israel

Terror group also confirms deaths of other commanders in war; ICC expected to cancel arrest warrant it issued for Deif in November

The head of Hamas's military wing Muhammad Deif in an undated photo. (Israel Defense Forces)
The head of Hamas's military wing Muhammad Deif in an undated photo. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida confirmed in a video statement Thursday that Muhammad Deif, the once-elusive commander of the terror group’s military wing, had been killed in an Israeli strike over the summer.

The terror group’s announcement came more than six months after Deif’s killing in a July 13 airstrike, with Hamas previously denying he had been killed.

Abu Obeida in his video statement also confirmed the deaths during the war of Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing; Ghazi Abu Tama’a, head of combat support; Raad Thabet, the military wing chief of staff; Rafa’a Salameh, commander of the Khan Younis Brigade; Ayman Nofal, commander of the Central Gaza Brigade; and Ahmed Ghandour, commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade.

Hamas had previously only announced the deaths of Nofal and Ghandour.

Israel targeted Deif and Salameh in an airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing dozens in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. The IDF confirmed Salameh’s death a day later, and Deif’s on August 1.

Until the July strike, Deif had survived seven Israeli attempts on his life over the years, some of which had maimed him.

According to a November report, Hamas was initially unable to confirm Deif’s death, partly due to the state of his badly disfigured remains. At the time, unnamed Hamas sources told the London-based, Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat paper that the group accepted that Deif had been killed, but Thursday’s statement marked the first time the organization officially acknowledged it.

The sources also told the paper at the time that two people had been arrested on suspicion of leading the IDF to Deif, including the slain military chief’s courier, who according to some reports had tipped the army off.

The head of Hamas’s military wing Muhammad Deif (left) and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in an undated photo. (Courtesy)

Despite the IDF announcing that it had killed Deif in August, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21 along with warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC listed the charges against Deif as crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, torture and sexual violence as well as war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, hostage-taking, outrages upon personal dignity and sexual violence.

As of Thursday evening, the ICC had not yet canceled the warrant. It previously dropped charges against Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar after they were killed by Israel.

Netanyahu and Gallant were both charged with war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally targeting a civilian population, and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts during the war in Gaza.

Deif, along with Hamas’s Gaza leader Sinwar, was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, when thousands of terrorists broke through the border and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while taking 251 people hostage to Gaza. He had topped 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.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (center), announces he is seeking arrest warrants from the court’s judges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, May 20, 2024. (ICC)

Born as Muhammad Masri in 1965 in Khan Younis, the terror leader became known as Muhammad Deif after joining Hamas during the First Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which began in 1987.

He was arrested by Israel in 1989 and spent about 16 months in detention.

Rising up the Hamas ranks, Deif developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise. He was held personally responsible by Israel for the deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings in the 1990s.

The last known attempt to eliminate Deif before the successful one in July, 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.

Prior to 2021, Israel had tried to kill Deif during the 2014 war in Gaza, but narrowly missed, instead killing his immediate family members.

Other assassination attempts took place in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

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