The Israeli military "confirmed" Thursday that Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in a Gaza airstrike in July – a claim the Palestinian resistance group says is untrue.
The announcement comes a day after an apparent Israeli strike in Tehran killed Hamas’s top political leader.
Israel believes Deif and Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, were the principal architects of the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and ignited the recent conflict.
Sinwar is thought to still be hiding in Gaza.
Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility for Tuesday’s strike in Tehran that killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief.
Hamas has claimed Deif survived the July attack in Gaza and did not immediately comment on the military’s confirmation.
The killing of Haniyeh represents a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed not to end the campaign in Gaza until Israel destroys Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike that "killed" Deif was a "significant milestone” toward achieving the war’s goals. "The results of this operation reflect that Hamas is an organization in disintegration,” he wrote on X.
The targeted attacks risk pushing Hamas to harden its position in cease-fire negotiations or withdraw from talks entirely.
Iran has vowed vengeance for the strike on its soil, raising fears of an all-out regional war.
Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 strike that hit a compound on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The military said at the time that another Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, was killed.
More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were also killed, Gaza health officials said.
In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said, "Following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike.”
In its 10-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza, Israel has killed about 39,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,100 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
More than 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, with the majority crammed into tent camps in the southwest corner of the territory, facing limited food and water.
Deif was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and led the unit for decades.
He remained a mysterious, underground figure in Gaza, never appearing in public, rarely photographed, and only occasionally heard in audio statements.
He survived a series of Israeli assassination attempts.
