Israel confirms Hamas military chief Deif killed in July strike
Israel's army confirmed on Thursday that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in an air strike last month in the southern Gaza Strip.
The announcement came a day after Hamas and Iran said the Palestinian movement's chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. Israel has not commented on that report.
"Mohammed Deif, the Osama bin Laden of Gaza was eliminated" on July 13, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.
This is a "significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas" in Gaza, Gallant added.
The army said fighter jets had struck Khan Yunis on July 13 and "following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike".
He was killed along with one of his top commanders, Rafa Salama, the military said.
Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 90 people had been killed in that strike but Hamas has denied Deif was among them.
"Deif initiated, planned, and executed the October 7th massacre," the military said.
On that day the militant Islamist group attacked southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,197 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Deif became head of Hamas's armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in 2002.
He was among Israel's most wanted man for nearly three decades and on a US list of "international terrorists" since 2015.
"During the war, he commanded Hamas's terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip by issuing commands and instructions to senior members of Hamas's military wing," the military said.
Deif, whose real name is Mohammed Diab al-Masri, was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1965.
The word Deif means "visitor" or "guest" and some say he chose it because he was always on the move with Israeli hunters on his trail, never spending more than one night in the same place.
- 'Cat with nine lives' -
In videos, Deif has appeared masked or shown in a silhouette, while rare photographs have circulated of one of Israel's most wanted men.
In January, Israel released a picture of Deif showing him with one eye missing, without specifying when it was taken.
His enemies dubbed him the "cat with nine lives" because of his many close calls with death.
In 2014, Israel launched an air strike on Gaza, killing Deif's wife and a seven-month-old son.
It was Deif who announced the start of the Hamas attack -- operation "Al-Aqsa Flood" -- in an audio message on October 7.
Deif became involved in Hamas in the 1980s when he was a student at the Gaza Islamic University.
He is said to have played a key role in the huge network of tunnels built beneath Gaza.
He was detained by Israel since the 1980s and spent about two years in a prison run by the Palestinian Authority. He was released or escaped, reports said.
In May, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested a warrant for his arrest -- alongside with Yahya Sinwar, the chief of Hamas in Gaza who is still being hunted by Israel -- for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hamas political leader Haniyeh, who was killed Wednesday in the Iranian capital, was also on that list.
The prosecutor has also sought warrants for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Gallant.
During the October 7 attack, militants also seized 251 people, 111 are still captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel's military campaign since then has killed 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.
