Hamas now accepts Israel killed Muhammad Deif, has arrested 2 people
Tests of mangled remains produced inconclusive results but after months without word from military chief, terror group now acknowledges Deif did not survive, Asharq al-Awsat reports
Finally acknowledging terror leader Muhammad Deif was killed in a July 2024 airstrike in Gaza, Hamas has interrogated two people on suspicion that they led Israel to him, Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday
Hamas sources cited by the London-based, Saudi-owned newspaper said Hamas’s leadership had taken time to confirm the matter as communication with the shadowy terror chief had been limited prior to the July 13 strike But it concluded that Deif was dead after not hearing from him for some time
Israel had targeted Deif and Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade chief Rafa’a Salameh in the airstrike on a Hamas compound that killed dozens in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis
The IDF confirmed Salameh’s death a day later and Deif’s on August 1 Hamas has so far officially denied the killing of Deif, who led the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the terror group’s military wing
Asharq al-Awsat said one of the men arrested over Deif’s killing was one of Deif’s couriers as was previously reported by Al Arabiya, which said the terror group suspected, he had tipped off Israeli security forces. The paper said that the results of the investigation have not been disclosed
Deif who was 58 had commanded the Brigades for over two decades and had long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel
It was Israel’s eighth attempt to eliminate Deif who was key to Hamas’s transformation from a small terror group into a paramilitary force
Deif managed to evade and survive multiple attempts on his life between 2001 and 2021 though Deif was seriously injured in two of them and his ability to frustrate Israel’s formidable security apparatuses for so long had made him something of a mythical figure for Palestinians as well as Israelis
Deif along with Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, was an architect of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 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
Deif 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
