Muhammad Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas’s military wing, and another top commander in the terror group were targeted in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, the Israeli military said.
The pair were struck with large munitions above ground while in a low building between the al-Mawasi area and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and not in a tunnel.
Hamas claimed that over 70 people had been killed in the strike.
According to the IDF’s assessments, no hostages were held at the site when the strike was carried out.
Deif’s fate was unknown as of 4 p.m., though Hebrew outlets cited unnamed security officials as saying there was a growing likelihood he had been killed.
A senior Hamas official denied that Deif was targeted in the strike.
“The Israeli allegations are nonsense and they aim to justify the horrifying massacre. All the martyrs are civilians and what happened was a grave escalation of the war of genocide, backed by the American support and world silence,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. He also said that the strike showed Israel is not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Al-Mawasi is designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone. But the IDF said the building struck was not in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians, but rather in a fenced-off Hamas compound within a civilian environment. Several dozen more Hamas operatives were also in the area of the site when it was targeted, including Deif and Salameh’s guards, military sources said.
Nevertheless, photos emerging from Gaza showed bodies of children and elderly individuals, purportedly from the scene.
Deif, 58, who has commanded the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades for over two decades, has long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel. He was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel, the deadliest attack in the country’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed and around 251 others dragged to Gaza as hostages.
Alongside Deif was another top figure, Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade. Salameh is considered to be close to Deif, and acting as his deputy since the assassination of the previous deputy head of the al-Qassam Brigades.
The strike was carried out a very short while after the military obtained intelligence on the two Hamas leaders’ whereabouts, according to IDF sources.
The military was still waiting for intelligence to confirm that Deif and Salameh were killed.
The al-Mawasi and western Khan Younis areas are part of an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone — where the vast majority of the Gazan population is residing — but the IDF said the strike was accurate and only targeted the fenced-off Hamas site.
Photos released by the military showed the scene before and after the strike.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claimed that at least 71 were killed and 289 were wounded in the strike.
It was unclear how many among them were civilians, though according to the IDF, most of the casualties were likely Hamas operatives.
Footage posted to social media showed Palestinians digging through sand and rubble in a large crater looking for survivors of the strike.
In addition to his involvement in the October 7 onslaught, Deif had been high on Israel’s most-wanted list since 1995 for his involvement in the planning and execution of a large number of terror attacks, including many bus bombings in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Following Saturday’s airstrike Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, his office said.
Additionally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that the premier had given “a permanent directive to eliminate senior Hamas officials” at the beginning of the war.
“The prime minister was updated on all developments during the night and continues to receive regular updates,” the PMO said, adding that Netanyahu would hold a situation assessment with security and military officials to discuss the next developments and steps.
If killed, Deif would be the most senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip to be slain by Israel amid the ongoing war, after his deputy, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in March. Hamas’s deputy political leader, Salah al-Arouri, was assassinated by Israel in an airstrike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut in January.
Deif has survived at least seven assassination attempts over the years, some of them injuring him to various degrees or killing his family members.
The last two known attempts, according to the military, occurred in May 2021 when Israel and Gazan terror groups fought in an 11-day flareup known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.
Prior to 2021, Israel had tried to kill Deif during the 2014 war in Gaza, but narrowly missed, killing instead his wife, infant son and 3-year-old daughter.
The other assassination attempts took place in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006, the last of which was believed to have resulted in the loss of his legs, although this was later disproven.
In December, the IDF appeared to place a bounty on his head, reportedly dropping flyers offering money for information on his whereabouts, as well as the whereabouts of other senior Hamas officials.
The flyer offered $400,000 for information on Yahya Sinwar, who leads the group in Gaza; $300,000 for information on his brother, Muhammed Sinwar, who commands the terror group’s southern brigade; $200,000 for information on Salameh; and $100,000 for information on Deif.