The Israeli military said on Thursday it had confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip in July.
The announcement came a day after an Israeli attack in the Iranian capital appeared to kill Hamas’ top political leader.
Israel believes Deif, the Hamas military chief, and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader in the Gaza Strip, masterminded the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and sparked war between Israel and Hamas. Sinwar is believed to be hiding out in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied whether it was behind Tuesday’s attack in Tehran that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hamas has said Deh survived a July attack on Gaza and did not immediately comment on the military’s confirmation announcement.
The killing of two top Hamas officials was a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had said Israel would not end its military operations in Gaza until it had destroyed Hamas’ military forces.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike that killed Deif was a “significant milestone” toward achieving the war’s objectives. “The results of this operation show that Hamas is a crumbling organization,” he wrote on X.
The assassination could force Hamas to toughen its position in ceasefire talks or withdraw altogether.
Iran has also vowed to retaliate against any attacks on its territory, raising fears of an all-out regional war.
Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 attack, hitting a village on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The military said at the time that another Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, was killed. Gaza health officials said at the time that the attack killed more than 90 people, including civilians who had taken shelter in nearby tents.
“Intelligence analysis confirms that Mohammed Deif was killed in the attack,” the Israeli army said in a statement on Thursday.
Israel has killed some 39,480 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,100 in 10 months of bombings and attacks on Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
More than 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million have been forced to flee their homes, with the majority living in tent cities with limited food and water in the southwestern corner of the territory.
Deif was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and led the group for decades.
Under his command, the Israeli military carried out dozens of suicide attacks against Israelis on buses and in cafes and built up a stockpile of powerful rockets capable of striking deep into Israel, which it did so many times.
He remained a mysterious underground figure in Gaza.
He has never been seen in public, has rarely been photographed and has only rarely been heard in audio statements.
He survived a series of Israeli assassination attempts.
