Israel says it has confirmed that chief of Hamas' military wing was killed in a July strike in Gaza

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

JERUSALEM -

The Israeli military said Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July. The announcement came a day after an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital killed Hamas' top political leader.

The rapid events this week have left U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators scrambling to salvage talks for a ceasefire deal in Gaza. At the same time, international diplomats want to avert an escalation into all-out regional war after the assassination in Tehran of Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh, Israel's killing of a top Hezbollah commander in a Beirut strike and now Israel's announcement of Deif's death.

There was no immediate comment on the Israeli claim by Hamas, which had previously said Deif survived the strike in Gaza. A member of Hamas' political bureau, Izzat al-Risheq, said in a statement Thursday that confirming or denying his death is the responsibility of the group's military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, which so far has been silent.

The apparent elimination of Haniyeh and Deif -- two of Hamas' most senior figures -- brings a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as Israeli forces continue to operate in Gaza.

After meeting with military officials Thursday, Netanyahu declared that Deif's death "enforces a simple principle that we have established, that whoever hurts us, we hurt them."

"We will exact a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any arena," Netanyahu said. The White House said Netanyahu was expected to have a phone conversation later Thursday with President Joe Biden.

The assassinations also put Netanyahu at a crossroads.

They present him with a potential political off-ramp to end the war, allowing him to retreat from his lofty promises of "total victory" while showing Israelis that Hamas' military capabilities suffered a debilitating blow.

The killings could also lead him to harden Israel's position in ceasefire talks, with Israeli officials insisting the blows to Hamas will force it to compromise. Hamas could dig in as well in the talks -- or quit them entirely.

Israel believes that Deif, the head of Hamas' military, and Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, were the chief architects of the Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war. Sinwar is believed to remain in hiding in Gaza.

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, the Israeli military said confirmation of Deif's death was made "following an intelligence assessment."

Elsewhere Thursday, Israeli airstrikes on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Gaza City district of Shujaiya killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 40 others, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, which sent teams to recover bodies. The army alleged that Hamas fighters used the compound to plot attacks against Israel.

When the bomb hit, "there were people wounded and screaming in front of my eyes," said witness Khaled Sukar, 23, whose cousin was among the dead at the Dalal Mughrabi School.

"Now I'm back to fearing the next time this will happen," he said. "Please, God, just make it stop."

This graphic released by Israel Defense Forces, Aug. 1, 2024, announces the death of Hamas Military Wing Commander Mohammed Deif. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

In its 10-month campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza, Israel has killed some 39,480 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,100 others, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. More than 80 per cent of the population of 2.3 million has been driven from their homes.

In other developments, Thursday marked 300 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a grim milestone for Palestinians in Gaza crammed into tent camps with limited food and water.

"Enough destruction. We are exhausted," said Ahmad Othman, who was forced to flee from the southern border town of Rafah to nearby Khan Younis. "We want to go back to our destroyed homes."

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, family members of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza protested outside the Israeli military's headquarters, calling on Netanyahu to strike a deal to bring their loved ones home.

"Three hundred days is a lot of time," said Sharon Kalderon, sister-in-law of Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon. "We just hope that it will end soon because we are tired."

So far, Netanyahu has said he is determined to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed. Far-right nationalist coalition partners, on whom he relies to stay in power, have threatened to leave the government if he halts the war.

After the announcement about Deif, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the "defeat of Hamas is closer than ever." He said the military would continue to "eliminate thousands of other terrorists until our security is restored and we bring the hostages home."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike that killed Deif was a "significant milestone" toward achieving the goals of the war. "The results of this operation reflect that Hamas is an organization in disintegration," he wrote on X.

Deif was one of the founders of Hamas' military wing in the 1990s. He led the Qassam Brigades for decades through campaigns of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, volleys of rocket fire into Israel and repeated Israeli assaults on Gaza since Hamas took power there in 2007.

He remained a mysterious, underground figure in Gaza. He never appeared in public, was hardly ever photographed and only rarely was his voice heard in audio statements. He survived a string of Israeli assassination attempts.

Haniyeh's killing in particular threw into disarray months of efforts at reaching a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage release. Haniyeh had been a main negotiator in those talks.

Qatari and Egyptian officials had tense exchanges with U.S counterparts over the assassination, said an Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal discussions.

While the U.S. has been pressing Egyptian and Qatari mediators to get Hamas to compromise, the Americans can't "pressure the other party, Israel to ... refrain from provocative acts," the Egyptian official said, calling the assassination "reckless."

Qatar's prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, expressed frustration in a post on social media: "Can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?"

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. had no prior knowledge of the strike in Tehran that killed Haniyeh.

The Egyptian official said no deal was likely in the near future since Hamas must now name Haniyeh's replacement. Mediators had been waiting for Hamas' response on the latest version of the deal. Instead, after Haniyeh's funeral, expected Friday, he said they will reach out to Hamas officials to explore the next steps.

After Haniyeh's assassination, Iran vowed revenge against Israel, and the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut could also bring reprisals and fuel fears of a wider spiral of escalation.

The Egyptian official said the priority now was preventing full-scale war.

In Beirut's southern suburbs, hundreds of black-clad mourners packed an auditorium Thursday for Shukur's funeral procession. Many of them held Hezbollah flags or photos of Shukur. An escort of red-capped fighters carried Shukur's coffin, also draped in a Hezbollah flag, down the aisle to the backing of a military band.

"We've entered a new phase that is different from the previous period," Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, told mourners, vowing a "well-studied retaliation" against Israel.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press Writer Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.