Martyred Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif’s last audio message surfaces

GAZA, Jan 31 (SABAH): Hamas has confirmed the martyrdom of its military chief Mohammed Deif who was referred as ‘The Ghost’ by Israelis. Mohammed Deif had launched the ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ against Israel.

Mohammad Deif, the General Commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was born in 1965 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza. He became a member of Hamas in 1990, and after joining, he became one of its leaders in 2002.

Mohammad Deif’s wife, their seven-month-old son, and three-year-old daughter were martyred in an Israeli air strike in 2014.

The Israelis referred to him as ‘The Ghost’ because there were no recent photographs of him, and according to his companions, he never stayed in one place for more than a night. Sometimes, he would change locations two or three times in a single night.

Despite being Israel’s most wanted person since 1995 for allegedly planning the killings of Israeli soldiers and civilians, Mohammad Deif survived seven assassination attempts over the last two decades.

In his audio message, he specifically mentioned Pakistan and urged the Pakistani people to stand up for the Palestinians and support Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

Mohammed Deif was widely seen as the second-ranking Hamas official in Gaza, behind Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in the territory, who was also martyred by Israeli forces last year.

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) last year issued an arrest warrant for Deif, alongside Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Deif was known to have helped engineer the construction of tunnels that have allowed Hamas fighters to enter Israel from Gaza. He was also credited with designing Hamas’s signature weapon, the Qassam rocket.

In its statement, Hamas also announced the death of deputy military commander Marwan Issa. The US announced Issa’s death in March last year.

Issa was the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and was considered one of Israel’s most-wanted men. The European Union, linked him directly to the 7 October attack.

The latest war was triggered when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel’s 15-month military offensive martyred more than 47,460 Palestinians in the territory, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect on 19 January. A total of 15 Israeli hostages have been freed since then.

So far, 400 Palestinian prisoners – ranging from those serving long sentences for bombings and other attacks to teenagers held without charge – have been released. Most have returned to the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.