Updated Nov. 21, 2024 at 7:20 p.m.*
-Analysis-
CAIRO — The fate of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif remains a mystery despite Israel’s assertion that he was killed in a July strike in southern Gaza. Dead or alive, the elusive 59-year-old has now become the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Court of Justice (ICC), together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former Minister of Defense.
In the weeks that followed Israeli military’s successful killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in late August, Deif’s name was added to the list of those considered possible successors to Sinwar, including his deputy Khalil al-Hayya, and Khaled Meshaal, in charge of regions outside the Palestinian territories — and his own brother Mohammed. Hamas is still considered to be in transitional phase.
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But Israel claimed that the July 13 strike, which hit the Muwasi area in Khan Yunis and killed more than 90 people, targeted Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama. Israel confirmed Salama’s death on July 14 and said on Aug. 1 that Deif was also killed in the strike.
Yet Hamas has insisted that Deif is still alive and wasn’t at the site of the strike. On Nov. 15, ICC prosecutors announced that although they were not in a position to determine whether Deif was still alive, the court would be proceeding with issuing the arrest warrant.
This kind of mystery is not new to Deif, whose life and his career are full of legends including escaping from prisons, assassination plots, and secret trips to Cairo for treatment.
Man of miracles
Born Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, he lived as a traveler. Because he never settled in a certain place or hideout, he was nicknamed Deif, meaning “the guest” in Arabic.
In addition to escaping many assassination attempts, Deif once escaped from the Palestinian Authority’s prison in the occupied West Bank in 2000 during the second Intifada. He had been arrested by the Palestinian Authority as part of a deal with Israel that included the PA gaining security control over three villages in Jerusalem.
The Israeli security services repeatedly tried to kill him; seven attempts failed, including four in 2004. Each time, Israel said he was a target with “extraordinary survivability.”
He managed to escape again through a nearby tunnel
“We called him Saheb al-Karamat [the man of miracles],” one Hamas official said.
During one of the assassination attempts in 2002, Daif was riding in a car with Adnan al-Ghoul, a Hamas leader. Al-Ghoul’s son was driving another car in front of them. Deif suddenly asked the driver to stop so he and al-Ghoul senior could move to the second car. Minutes later, their original car was bombed; Deif and al-Ghoul senior escaped death, but two of Deif’s companions were killed.
In 2004, he attended a meeting for Hamas military council in a four-story house in Gaza City. The meeting took place in the third story, and as discussion was ongoing, Deif asked the attendees to move to the basement immediately. Five minutes after they moved, the house was bombed and Deif and his colleagues escaped death again.
During the war on Gaza in 2014, while leaders of the Palestinian factions were meeting in a Cairo hotel with Egyptian officials, news spread about Deif’s assassination. There had been a strike on a house he was in Gaza City. His wife and two children were killed in the strike, and Deif was seriously injured but managed to escape through a nearby tunnel. A Hamas source said that Deif was treated in a Cairo hospital.
Hamas sheds doubt
Given his legacy, many have questioned whether Deif was really killed in this latest attempt by Israel. While his death was confirmed by Israel more than two weeks after the attack, Hamas has yet to do the same.
Israeli media has published stories about the assassination. According to a report by the The Jewish Chronicle, a Mossad agent posed as a market stallholder, selling vegetables outside the building Deif was believed to visit regularly. A “Dovdevan” undercover team arrived in the area and began trawling through the displaced populace. Some posed as UNRWA workers coming to deliver aid, some as Muslim religious figures who had come to lift the spirits of the evacuees, the report said. The covers they used were chosen for their ability to develop physical and verbal contact with the displaced Palestinians so as to collect as much intelligence as possible.
I tell Netanyahu that Mohammed Deif is listening to you now and mocking your lies.
Yet Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas political official, has mocked Netanyahu, and said told Al-Jazeera that Deif had not been harmed during the operation and was alive. “I tell Netanyahu that Mohammed Deif is listening to you now and mocking your lies,” al-Hayya said, using ambiguous terms to confirm that Deif is still alive.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said that Deif is “fine.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also affirmed, during a funeral ceremony for Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr earlier this month, that Deif is still alive, saying “Abu Khaled Al-Daif, may God protect and preserve him.”
Hot intelligence
Hamas senior official outside Gaza said a hot intelligence tip was behind the July 13 strike. The official said Israel spotted Salama, who was visiting his displaced wife.
“Salama was walking in disguise with a companion. It seems that the occupation believed that the companion was Daif, considering that the two men were in Khan Yunis,” the official said, explaining that when Salama approached the tent where his wife and children were, they were all bombed. “Salama’s remains were not found. The bomb left a hole that was more than 11 meters deep,” he said.
Yet every time Israel has tried to achieve a moral victory at the expense of Deif, it backfired. Such attempts further consolidated his name and image as a legend of Palestinian resistance, and Palestinians chanted his name in their demonstrations: “Put the sword in front of the sword, we are the men of Mohammed Deif.”
*Originally published Aug. 30, 2024, this article was updated Nov. 21, 2024 with news about an ICC arrest warrant issued against Mohammed Deif, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant.
