FALCON POWERS – The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had targeted the military leader of the Hamas movement, Mohamed Al-Deif, in an air strike in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli newspaper “Jerusalem Post”, “it is unclear whether Al-Deif was hit in the raid, and his condition is unknown.”
In contrast, the Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri considered the Israeli reports indicating that Al-Deif was targeted as “empty talk.”
Who is Mohamed Al-Deif?
He was born under the name Mohamed Al-Masri in 1965 in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
He later became known as Mohamed Al-Deif after joining Hamas during the First Intifada in 1987.
Only two years after joining Hamas, he was arrested and spent 16 months in Israeli prisons.
Al-Deif developed Hamas’s tunnel network in the Gaza Strip and honed his expertise in bomb-making.
Hamas sources said he lost one of his eyes and was seriously injured in one of his legs in previous assassination attempts.
After surviving multiple assassination attempts, his supporters in Gaza gave him the nickname “The Man with Nine Lives”.
Al-Deif is believed to have been the mastermind behind most of Hamas’s attacks, including the one on October 7th.
