Mohammed Deif
Mohammed Deif [moh-HAH-mehd DAYF], the leader of Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, organised the deadly assault on Israel on 07 October 2023. The attack plunging Israel and Gaza into a new war brought to the forefront a little-known character who has managed to elude Israel's intelligence services for over 30 years.
The Israel Defense Forces said 01 August 2024 that it had received additional intelligence to confirm Deif's death to a complete certainty. The military believed that Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on 13 July 2024, although it was awaiting final confirmation before making a public announcement. An Israeli airstrike on 13 July 2024 killed 92 people, according to Hamas, in the Al-Mawasi camp for displaced persons in the southern Gaza Strip near Khan Yunis. Rafeh Salama, in the raid, which also targeted the commander of the movement's armed wing, Mohammed Deif. Israel said the attack targeted Al-Daif, but it is not certain that he was killed. Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said on 14 July 2024 that it is still too early to confirm the killing of the commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza, Mohammed Deif, and the results of the raid that targeted him, because Hamas is hiding it. "Our operation yesterday (Saturday) helped to strike Hamas's capabilities and will help reach an exchange deal," Halevi said in press statements.
According to what Israeli official sources said, Tel Aviv has believed for years that Muhammad Al-Deif’s health is not well, and that the person born under the name “Muhammad Diab Ibrahim Al-Masry” 58 years ago in Gaza is always subject to health care, and is transported in ambulances, or is constantly sitting as he did. The paralyzed man is in a wheelchair and suffers from many functional difficulties, according to what I concluded from pursuing him for years.
However, new intelligence information revealed in which Israel revealed Muhammad al-Deif’s health condition in a way that surprised it, after intelligence services viewed video clips taken of him recently, and confirmed that “Abu Khaled,” known by the nickname Muhammad al-Deif, “is in good health, contrary to what was circulated and known.” ", according to a report recently published by the Israeli "Wala" news website.
On 27 December 2023, the Jerusalem Post newspaper, citing Israeli media, published a new photo that it said was of the leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, Muhammad Al-Deif.
Mohammed Deif was born in Gaza in 1960. Since 2002, he had been the Gaza commander of the military wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. Deif was critically wounded in a targeted Israeli attack on 26 September 2002. He was appointed head of the Hamas military wing in 2002 after the death of his predecessor, Salah Shehade, in an Israeli raid on 23 July 2002. According to some, Deif's mentor was Yahya Ayyash, a renowned Hamas bomb maker and head of the Qassam brigades until his assassination in late 1995. Deif's exact whereabouts are unknown. Marwan Issa, who replaced Ahmed Jabari after the latter was killed in 2012 by Israel, serves as Deif's deputy.
Various legends and myths have been associated with his health condition, some claiming that he suffered brain damage. In July 2006, Yediot and Maariv cited the IDF's belief that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was wounded in an IAF bombardment in Gaza City on 12 July 2006, was paralyzed and in a critical condition. Deif, the senior Palestinian terror suspect wanted by Israel, once appeared in a Hamas film, in which he issued statement proving that he is still active.
By 1999 Mohammed Deif was still an important member of HAMAS, but followed orders from Yasin who was against "operations" at this time. Deif is very intelligent and was continually cutting off contact with those who might be able to lead the PA to him. Deif remained "beloved" among Palestinians because of the toll he exacted from israel.
On 27 August 2005 Hamas released a video showing bomb-maker Mohammed Deif, who tops the list of militants wanted by Israel, celebrating the Gaza Strip pullout as a victory for armed resistance and urging the destruction of Israel. The Jerusalem Post quoted sources in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip as saying that tensions are mounting between the PA and Hamas following the release of the tape. Were Abbas sincere about eradicating terror he'd have put Hamas master bomb-maker Muhammad Deif behind bars instead of allowing him to remain at large within his fiefdom to dispatch taped messages exhorting Palestinians to greater bloodshed in order to wrest Jaffa, Safed, Nazareth and Ashkelon from Israel. Deif's in-your-face harangues were emblematic.
On 09 April 2006 Maariv cited the London-based Al-Hayat that Hamas's military wing in Gaza, under the command of Mohammed Deif, was holding talks with members of al-Qaida in Iraq and Jordan. IDF military action in Gaza continued on July 12-13, 2006 although news coverage was overshadowed by the developing situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border. PA sources listed 26 Palestinians killed on July 12, including 9 members of the Abu Slimeh family who died in an attack that reportedly injured Hamas military wing leader Mohammed Deif.
Yediot and Maariv on 14 July 2006 cited the IDF's belief that Deif, who was wounded in an IAF bombardment in Gaza City, was paralyzed and in a critical condition.
Ha'aretz reported 25 June 2008 that Hamas's military wing, Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, had split into two groups after an attempt to depose its military commander, Ahmed Al-Jabari. Palestinian sources were quoted as saying that the attempt to replace Al-Jabari with Imad Akal failed, but that it has split the organization into two camps: one led by Al-Jabari and the other by Akal. Mohammed Deif, the former head of Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, was behind the attempt, according to the sources.
Mohammed Deif is the supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was born in 1965 in Khan Yunis, Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. Deif is known to be elusive, rarely appearing in public and only appearing in video messages on rare occasions. He appeared in a video message after Hamas's surprise attack on Israel.
Hamas’s complex attack on Israel that involved air, sea and land incursion put spotlight on Mohammed Deif, the crippled Palestinian fighter, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in Palestine's Gaza. Since 2002, Deif had led the Qassam Brigades, the military offshoot of Hamas. The elusive fighter has survived at least seven Israeli assassination attempts in which his wife and two kids including an infant son were killed. He also lost an eye, arm and leg in those assassination attempts.
Just like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’s handicapped spiritual leader, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2004, the 57-year-old Deif has run the Qassam brigades from a wheelchair in the last two decades. “He was very kind,” said Ghazi Hamad, one of Hamas’s leading figures, referring to Deif, whose name means a guest in Arabic alluding to his nomadic lifestyle as he constantly changes locations to avoid getting killed by the Israelis.
Hamad met and befriended Deif in the late 1980s when the First Intifada —the Palestinian uprising— broke out. In the prison, Deif “would make little cartoons to make us laugh,” recalled Hamad. But Deif was fixated on a purpose. “From the beginning of his life in Hamas, he was focused on the military track,” Hamad told the Financial Times.
After Hamas’s lightning multi-pronged attack on Israel, which has not faced such an offensive since the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, Deif was clear about his intentions. “In light of the continuing crimes against our people, in light of the orgy of occupation and its denial of international laws and resolutions, and in light of American and Western support, we’ve decided to put an end to all this, so that the enemy understands that he can no longer revel without being held to account,” announced the Qassam Brigades leader.
Like other members of Hamas, Deif has long advocated attacking Israel. In the Qassam Brigades-led offensive, Palestinian groups managed to capture and detain dozens of Israeli military officials who reportedly included a major general rank officer, an unprecedented event. Unlike many Palestinian leading figures, Deif is not interested in internal Palestinian leadership struggles between different factions and leaders, focusing instead steadfastly on the Israeli front, according to experts.
In late 2010, Deif wrote an article in which he outlined the group’s aim according to his own vision of the conflict, saying that “Palestine will remain ours including Al Quds (Jerusalem), Al Aqsa (mosque), its towns and villages from the (Mediterranean) Sea to the (Jordan) River, from its North to its South. You (Israel) have no right to even an inch of it.” One of the recent triggers of Hamas’s offensive against Israel was the Israeli settlers' violence in the Al Aqsa compound, the third holiest site for the world’s Muslims.
Many details of Deif’s life remain shrouded in obscurity with many unknowns including who his parents were and what kind of a childhood he had. A testimony to his secretive nature is the fact that there's no clear picture of Deif available. Israeli intelligence believes that his real name was Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri. According to Israeli intelligence, which faced criticism for failing to predict Hamas’s attack yesterday, Deif’s relatives were part of the Fedayeen Palestinian fighters, who in the 1950s launched attacks on illegal Israeli posts.
Like many Palestinian leaders, who joined the nation’s liberation movements during their university period, Deif’s relationship with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired movement, began at the Islamic University of Gaza. In the early 1990s, Deif like many Palestinians including founders of Hamas was angry about the Oslo Accords signed by Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), that ceded many Palestinian lands to Israel.
Under the influence of Yahya Ayyash and Adnan al-Ghoul, who were two of Hamas’s top military strategists prior to their assassinations by Israel, Deif became part of the Qassam Brigades, which was founded shortly after the Oslo Accords. Deif was involved in many plots which involved killing of Israeli soldiers and suicide attacks deep inside Israel. Deif was also part of a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005.
Deif said in July 2006 that "all the land conquered in 1948 is Palestine's land. Every Muslim in the world has the right and duty to fight in order to liberate this land because it is Muslim land.... We are a nation which has been defeated, deprived and expelled from our lands, and we are operating to obtain what we deserve – what we had before 1948. Then there was no state called Israel. This occupation state was founded due to a United Nations decision. One can still see that all the UN rules apply to the weak side and not to the Israeli entity".
Deif, a long-time target of the IDF for his crucial role in planning terrorist attacks, who had been wounded in a prior assassination attempt, was thought killed during Operation Protective Edge. He resurfaced, however, months later in April 2015, reportedly overseeing a crew of approximately 1,000 workers constructing new attack tunnels with materials provided to Palestinian people for reconstruction but sold on the black market to Hamas.
Mohammed Deif has been on Israel's 'most wanted' list for nearly three decades. The leader of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, is unlikely to lose the designation in his lifetime.
Deif is behind the military operation launched from the Gaza Strip that caught Israel off guard on Saturday, October 7. After intense fighting that caused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on Hamas, Deif, perhaps more than ever, is in Tel Aviv's crosshairs.
As Deif’s bounty rose, his star in Gaza is rose too. His “prestige” was already strong, says Omri Brinner, an Israel and Middle East analyst at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS). “But with this operation – the most successful in the history of Palestinian resistance – his legacy will live forever. He can fail now, Israel can assassinate him now: his legacy will outlast him.”
As someone who had escaped multiple assassination attempts, Deif is the “ultimate survivor of Palestinian resistance”, says Brinner. His ability to evade Israeli intelligence services has earned him the nickname "the man with nine lives".
Considered an international terrorist by the United States since 2015, Deif represented a direct and constant threat to the internal security of Israel for over 30 years. "Militancy against Israel is a field with low life expectancy. It’s quite remarkable that he has been able to survive so long. He is a long-lasting stain on Israel's reputation of taking down designated targets," says Jacob Eriksson, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the University of York.
The trick to survival lies in remaining hidden. The only official photo of Deif in circulation is over twenty years old. However, he is far from unscathed. Deif is said to have lost his sight, one arm, and one leg after an Israeli attack in 2006.
His real name is also unknown, although several media outlets suggest it is Mohammed al-Masri. "Deif" is, in fact, an Arabic moniker that translates literally to "guest". "It’s a reference to the fact he doesn’t stay more than one night in the same place to avoid being caught by Israel," explains Eriksson.
Other details about Deif’s life are scarce. Deif was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza in the 1960s, according to an Israeli intelligence official who spoke with the Financial Times. In 2014, the Washington Post reported that Deif studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he frequented members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas would later become an offshoot.
The future architect of Hamas's military operations joined the Islamist organisation in the late 1980s with the help of Yahya Ayyash – known as "the Engineer" – one of Hamas’s main explosives experts with whom "Deif was very close", according to Eriksson. After orchestrating suicide bombing attacks in the 1990s, Deif became increasingly important within Hamas after Ayyash’s assassination by Israeli intelligence services in 1996. He was appointed head of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades in 2002.
One of his early achievements as a leader was to apply lessons from the second intifada in the early 2000s. He masterminded the construction of underground tunnels allowing Hamas fighters to launch incursions into Israeli territory from Gaza. He also emphasised the use of rockets as extensively as possible. “In response to Israel's fortifying the border with walls, he developed Hamas’s ‘below and above strategy’, meaning digging tunnels for Hamas militants to go into Israel and sending rockets," explains Brinner. His modus operandi has "always been to directly hit Israeli territory by any means possible to make it pay the highest price for its treatment of the population in Gaza", notes Eriksson.
Deif’s ideology is about making any purely political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible, says Brinner. “His philosophy is about a military solution to the conflict.” It's no coincidence, Brinner adds, that Deif organised a major campaign of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords.
This reputation for using purely military means also partly explains "why he enjoys unparalleled popularity among the Gaza population", says Brinner. In 2014, in a poll conducted by a Palestinian news site, “Deif was voted more popular than Khaled Meshal, the overall leader of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s top political leader in Gaza – both highly visible personalities and known to every Palestinian," reported the Washington Post.
"He is a military leader, so he is immune to critiques of how Hamas has handled the humanitarian and social aspects of Gaza's administration," says Eriksson. "He is also the only one who lives in Gaza and has educated his children there," adds Brinner. This is significant from the perspective of Gaza residents, who accuse Haniyeh of leading Hamas from a "luxury hotel in Qatar".
Deif's personality and the respect he inspires in Gaza can also partly explain how the ambitious attack succeeded despite the Israeli intelligence services' widely recognised effectiveness. "The fact that Hamas planned this operation for a year – according to the latest estimations – without any information leaking speaks to the loyalty the select few who were involved in the planning of the operation have to Deif," says Brinner.
This loyalty has already resulted in the deaths of more than 1000 Israelis and 830 Palestinians since the start of the attack on Saturday.
The Israeli media reported 20 December 2023 that Muhammad al-Deif, commander-in-chief of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades , the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), is “in good health” and moves on his feet without a wheelchair, contrary to the estimates of the Israeli intelligence services that indicated that he lost his ability to move as a result of An assassination attempt was made against him previously.
In the context of talking about “another failure” of the occupation army’s intelligence, the Israeli Channel 12 revealed the presence of video tapes in the possession of the Israeli security services showing Muhammad Al-Deif in good health and walking on his feet, contrary to the estimates of the Israeli intelligence, which believed that he was paralyzed following previous failed assassination attempts.
For its part, Maariv newspaper said that until the discovery of these video clips, “Israel lived under the illusion that the guest was ill, and that his health condition was deteriorating and he was unable to walk, only to discover today the failure of its estimates,” adding that “the recordings show that the guest’s health condition is much better than Israel estimated, and that he "Able to move around on his own without using a wheelchair and able to move his hands."
The newspaper explained that the discovery of these video clips came as part of the process of collecting intelligence information in the Gaza Strip, and that “the guest was seen walking on his feet, albeit with a slight limp, and in another video he was sitting in a different place.” Maariv reported that it appears from the video clips that Al-Deif's condition is much better than what was estimated in Israel, after a long series of attacks and attempts to thwart him, in some of which he was even injured. Guest can walk alone and does not use a wheelchair, and may also be able to use both hands.
The newspaper reported, "The "guest" is alive, functioning and in relatively good condition. He is even able to walk on his own and shows functional physical independence, completely inconsistent with detailed intelligence assessments in his case in recent years." It also indicated that those responsible for these inaccurate assessments will be held accountable. “When the day comes to examine the intelligence failures in their various contexts, the guest’s situation will be dealt with separately.”
Al-Deif survived 7 previous assassination attempts, in some of which he was seriously injured. The Israeli occupation army distributed leaflets in the Gaza Strip and promised a large cash prize of $100,000 and more to those who would provide reliable information about the whereabouts of Hamas officials, such as Muhammad Al-Deif.
Israeli media discussion in its coverage of the war on the Gaza Strip 22 December 2023 focused on the role played by Muhammad al-Deif, commander-in-chief of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Elior Levy, head of the Palestinians department at Kan 11 TV, believed that Al-Deif’s interference in the military arm of Hamas was “very deep,” and “he was interfering in very delicate matters to the point that he was concerned with the wings of missiles.” He said that his physical disability did not mean he is mentally disabled.
For his part, Reserve General Tamir Hayman, former director of the National Security Research Institute, said that Al-Deif “has cognitive ability, and he has become a symbol and a legend after surviving several assassination attempts. Simply mentioning his name motivates the fighters,” referring to Palestinian fighters.
Despite his importance and great centrality in the Hamas movement, Al-Deif “is nothing more than a tool in this organization, and even after his liquidation, someone will come to fill his place,” according to lawyer Gonen Ben-Yitzhak, a former employee of the Israeli Internal Security Agency ( Shin Bet ). Ben-Yitzhak says, “ His liquidation is important on the principled level and on the level of pursuing these figures.”
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