Who is Mohammed Deif, the Hamas commander Israel says was killed in Gaza's Al Mawasi?

He is considered to have played a key role in the October 7 attacks

Palestinians inspect the damage from Israeli strikes on a tent camp in Al Mawasi. The strikes were reportedly targeting Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. Reuters

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Israel's military said on Thursday that Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas' military wing, had been killed in a July 13 Israeli air strike in Al Mawasi camp.

The massive bombing raid at the time levelled several buildings and killed at least 90 people, injuring nearly 300.

Hamas at the time denied that Mr Deif was the target and said it was an attempt to "justify the horrifying massacre". "We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated," the Israeli army wrote on their official social media account on X. No further details were provided.

Israel says Mr Deif played a key role in the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7 and has vowed to kill him.

More than 38,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in more than nine months of war.

Senior military commander

Mr Deif’s real name is Mohammed Diab Al Masri.

Deif is a nom de guerre that means "guest" in Arabic, in reference to his habit of constantly changing his location to avoid assassination.

He was born into a refugee camp in Khan Younis in 1965, and first became involved with Hamas in Gaza in the 1980s when he led the Islamists’ union at Gaza Islamic University. He was studying as a biology student and had become close to the Muslim Brotherhood, with which Hamas has close ties.

Mr Deif became involved in Hamas's military operations over the next 20 years.

He was arrested by Israel in 1989 and spent about 16 months in detention, a Hamas source told Reuters.

Rising in Hamas ranks, Mr Deif developed the group's network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise.

In 2002, he was appointed the commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades. His predecessor, Salah Shehade, was killed in an Israeli raid.

Israel sees him as behind the campaign of suicide bombings that targeted buses and public places in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005, and considers him responsible for the death of scores of civilians.

There are only three known photographs of Mr Deif: one taken in his twenties, another of him masked and an image of his shadow, which was used when the audio tape was broadcast.

His survival while running Hamas's armed wing has created an element of mystique around him. In videos he is masked, or just a silhouette of him is shown.

Role in October 7

Israel accuses Mr Deif of being one of the masterminds of the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel.

About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the attacks, which prompted Israel's retaliatory war against Gaza in which more than 38,000 people have been killed.

As the leader of Hamas's military wing, Mr Deif is seen as having organised the attacks alongside Hamas's senior leader, Yahya Sinwar.

A recording of Mr Deif was broadcast on Hamas's TV channel on the day of the attack.

"Today the rage of Al Aqsa, the rage of our people and nation is exploding. Our mujahedeen, today is your day to make this criminal understand that his time has ended," Mr Deif said in the recording.

In the recording, Mr Deif named the attack "Al Aqsa Flood," linking it to Israeli raids on the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Since October 7, Israel's leaders have repeatedly vowed to wipe out Hamas as an organisation.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told reporters that the group's leaders are "living on borrowed time".

Previous assassination attempts

Israel has attempted to kill Mr Deif on at least seven occasions.

Four assassination attempts during the 2000s reportedly left him wounded. Some reports say he lost an eye during one strike.

Several members of his family have been killed in the attempted assassinations.

Mr Deif's wife, seven-month-old son and three-year-old daughter were killed by an Israeli air strike in 2014.

“Mohamed Deif deserves to die just like [Osama] bin Laden. He is an arch murderer and as long as we have an opportunity we will try to kill him,” Israeli's former interior minister Gideon Saar told army radio in 2014.

In 2021, Israel fought an 11-day conflict with Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli military tried to kill Mr Deif at least twice during the operation, but he survived.

Shortly after October 7, Hamas said Mr Deif's brother was killed in an Israeli strike.

Abdul Fattah Deif, along with his son and granddaughter, were killed after Israeli jets struck Khan Younis on October 11. It is not known whether Mr Deif was the intended target of that strike.