Israeli military confirms death of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif in July strike in Gaza

Israel said it targeted Hamas’ military commander Mohammed Deif in a massive strike Saturday. (AP/File)
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Updated 01 August 2024
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Israeli military confirms death of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif in July strike in Gaza

  • Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 strike that hit a compound on the outskirts of Khan Younis

GAZA: The Israeli military said Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.
Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 strike that hit a compound on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, but the military said for weeks it was working to determine if he died in the blast. Hamas has denied he was killed. More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were killed in the strike, Gaza health officials said at the time.
In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said that “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike.”
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The Israeli confirmation came a day after an apparent Israeli airstrike in Tehran killed Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has not confirmed or denied being behind the attack, but Iran has vowed retaliation. Along with Deif and Haniyeh, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, but he has so far remained elusive.
Israel says Sinwar and Deif were the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants rampaged in southern Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
Deif was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and lead the unit for decades. Under his command, it carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis on buses and at cafes and built up a formidable arsenal of rockets that could strike deep into Israel and often did.


Israeli military says its forces shot dead Palestinian rock-thrower in West Bank

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Israeli military says its forces shot dead Palestinian rock-thrower in West Bank

RAMALLAH: Israeli soldiers shot at three Palestinians who were throwing rocks at cars in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and killed one of them, the Israeli military said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person had been killed and one wounded in the incident. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. The Israeli military said that apart from the fatality, one other person was “neutralized” and one arrested.
A day earlier, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a bystander at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The military initially said two “terrorists” were killed after soldiers opened fire at a car accelerating toward them, before later clarifying that only one was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and that a 55-year-old bystander was the second person killed.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the teen as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.