If Hamas terror chief Mohammed Deif was killed in Saturday’s Israeli strike in Gaza, Muhammad Sinwar, the commander of Hamas’s Southern Brigade and a younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, would replace him as head of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas sources told the pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday.
Yahya Sinwar is the leader of Hamas in Gaza, while Deif leads the “military wing” of the terror group. They are the top two Hamas leaders in Gaza and Jerusalem’s leading targets, having planned and executed the Oct. 7 massacre of over one thousand people in southern Israel.
Muhammad Sinwar is considered one of the key planners of the Oct. 7 attacks.
A member of Hamas’s military council, Sinwar was responsible for the construction of the largest tunnel found by Israeli forces in Gaza, which approached the Erez border crossing.
The younger Sinwar has survived six assassination attempts, while Deif had survived seven, not including Saturday’s strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that it could not be confirmed whether Deif and his deputy, Rafa’a Salameh, were killed in the strike.
Hamas sources confirmed that Salameh was killed in the Israeli strike, while refusing to confirm or deny Deif’s death, according to a Sunday morning report in the pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
A top Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that Deif was “fine” despite the Israeli assassination attempt. “Commander Mohammed Deif is well and directly overseeing” the terror group’s armed wing, the official said.
Israel’s Kan News reported on Saturday night that senior security officials told the political echelon during a situational assessment that Deif was wounded in the attack, and that they were waiting for final confirmation, which could take time. The security officials also reportedly confirmed that Salameh was killed.
