The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency on Thursday confirmed that the head of Hamas’s terror army, Mohammed Deif, was killed in a joint operation in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza on July 13.
“After an intelligence check, it can be confirmed that the attack killed Mohammed Deif, the commander of the military arm and number two in the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza, which planned and carried out the murderous massacre on Oct. 7,” the IDF said.
Deif and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of the terror group’s Khan Younis Brigade, were targeted in a building above ground close to the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone and the city of Khan Yunis.
The IDF confirmed the day after the attack that Salameh was killed.
Deif, 58, was the second in command in Gaza after Yahya Sinwar, the IDF’s top target after the two men led the planning and execution of the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel. Head of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, Deif was also responsible for planning several bus-bombing attacks in the 1990s and 2000s.
“Muhammad Deif, the ‘Osama Bin Laden of Gaza,’ was eliminated on 13.07.24. This is a significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas as a military and governing authority in Gaza, and in the achievement of the goals of this war,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Thursday.
“The operation was conducted precisely and professionally by the IDF and ISA. This operation reflects the fact that Hamas is disintegrating and that Hamas terrorists may either surrender or they will be eliminated. Israel’s defense establishment will pursue Hamas terrorists – both the planners and the perpetrators of the 07.10 massacre. We will not rest until this mission is accomplished,” Gallant continued.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted that the defeat of Hamas “is closer than ever” in the wake of Deif’s death.
“The defeat of Hamas is closer than ever and we are fighting on all fronts. We must not stop a moment before victory!” the minister wrote.
“Hamas chief of staff Muhammad Deif is eliminated, Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr is eliminated, many thousands of terrorists including very senior ones were eliminated, and we will continue like this until we destroy them all, restore security and bring the hostages back home,” Smotrich continued.
He added a biblical verse: “I will pursue my enemies and I will overtake them, and I will not return until they are gone.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party praised the successful operation that eliminated Deif, tweeting on Thursday that it is a “military achievement of unparalleled importance… [that] should be translated into strategic political achievements, and everything should be done to return the abductees home. Now.”
