The Guest who brought gift of death: Who's Hamas's Deif killed by Israel

New Delhi,UPDATED: Aug 1, 2024 17:07 IST

Trying to avenge a deadly bus suicide attack in Tel Aviv, Israelis launched a hunt for a specific target. The target, one of Israel's most-wanted men, was in the crosshairs. Israeli helicopter gunships launched missiles at a car in Gaza City in 2009.

The incident in broad daylight in the Sheik Radwan neighbourhood killed six.

However, it turned out to be a missed opportunity for the Israelis.

For Deif, whose nom de guerre means "the Guest", is inspired from the practice of Palestinian fighters staying overnight with different sympathisers to evade Israeli intelligence. Deif rarely stayed at a place for more than a night.

Israeli forces have been on the hunt for Deif for decades. They have got him now.

ISRAEL CONFORMS DEIF'S DEATH, AFTER DAYS OF SUSPENSE

After days of suspense, Israel confirmed on Thursday that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who is believed to have masterminded the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed in an airstrike last month in Gaza.

A massive strike on July 13, in which Israel claimed to target Hamas' shadowy military commander in Gaza, resulted in the deaths of at least 90 people.

What might have felt like a 'same old story' as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then said "there still isn't absolute certainty" that Mohammed Deif was among the dead.

"We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated," the Israel Defence Forces announced on X, days after Isamil Haniyeh, who led Hamas's political operations, was killed in Tehran.

Mohammed Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who had been a thorn in Israel's side for decades, has been eliminated in the eighth attempt.

Born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, Deif is credited with developing Hamas' rocket arsenal and the tunnel system, the 700-kilometre elaborate Gaza Metro.

WHY ISRAEL WANTED MOHAMMED DEIF SO BAD?

The Israeli desperation to get undoubtedly stems from the fact that Mohammed Deif is believed to be the mastermind behind the brutal October 7 massacre in Southern Israel, which it called its '9/11 moment'.

As Hamas launched a barrage of rockets, Deif, in an audio tape broadcast, named it the "Al-Aqsa Flood", hinting at a payback for Israeli raids on Islam's third-holiest site (Al-Aqsa Mosque) in Jerusalem in 2021.

The 58-year-old Deif began planning the operation in May 2021, said the Reuters report.

He was also believed to have trained the militants, especially the elite Nukhba forces, who attacked on October 7, according to a report in The Guardian.

The surprise attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and over 250 taken hostages by Hamas, is the bloodiest attack in Israel's 75-year history,

In response, amongst the three Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government vowed to kill, was Deif, along with Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Marwan, Issa his deputy, according to Reuters.

DITCHED DEATH SEVEN TIMES, WHAT DO WE KNOW OF DEIF?

Deif, who had allegedly lost his brother, nephew, niece, wife, 3-year-old daughter, and 7-month-old son in the Israeli hunt for him, is said to have survived seven assassination attempts before he was killed in the airstrike on July 13.

An Israeli air strike roughly 21 years ago, reportedly left him in a wheelchair, when the mastermind lost an arm and a leg, reported the Financial Times.

In May 2021, the Israeli military made two attempts in one week to kill Deif, but both went in vain.

Despite the close calls, Deif had managed to maintain a low profile, rarely making public appearances. Until last year, only three photos of Dief were seen: one from his 20s, a masked photo, an image of his shadow used during the 7 October broadcast, and one found by Israel in millions of computer files it seized, according to The Guardian.

Deif, who rose through the ranks in Hamas, was arrested by Israel in 1989, and spent 16 months in detention. In the following decade, he made sure Israel and Palestine didn't talk peace.

Dief, who studied chemistry at the Islamic University of Gaza, was trained by "Engineer" Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash, the chief bombmaker of Hamas in the 1990s.

In the meantime, he helped establish the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and later came to head it.

Deif also established the 'Shadow Unit' within the al-Qassam Brigades, an elite unit meant to guard and hide enemy captives.

The July 13 strike, which targeted Deif in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, had raised questions about his fate. While Israel had refrained from officially declaring that Deif was dead, Hamas officials had claimed that he was alive and "fine" after the attack.

However, while there were uncertainties about his life, the IDF's confirmation certainly brought closure to the decades-old chase and hunt of 'the guest'.

The confirmation of Deif's death comes a day after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The Israelis have an upper hand for now.