The Israeli military said on Thursday it had killed Muhammad Deif, the Hamas commander who is believed to have been a planner of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in an airstrike last month, which would make him the third Iranian-backed militant leader slain in recent weeks.
The Israeli announcement confirming the death of Mr. Deif, the leader of Hamas’s military wing, came as thousands of mourners attended the funerals of another Hamas leader and a Hezbollah commander whose assassinations this week have amplified fears of a wider regional war.
Mr. Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a compound in southern Gaza on July 13, according to the Israeli military. It said his death had been confirmed by an intelligence assessment, but did not provide further details. At least 90 other people were killed in the strike, according to Gaza’s health officials.
Hamas has not confirmed or denied Mr. Deif’s death. The No. 2 Hamas leader in Gaza, he would be the group’s most senior military leader slain by Israeli forces during the offensive in Gaza that has also killed more than 38,000 people, according to the territory’s health officials. Israel began its campaign in the enclave after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, during which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted to Gaza.
Israeli leaders, who have said they will continue fighting in Gaza until they destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, celebrated the announcement of Mr. Deif’s death, the latest revelation in a dizzying two days that have shaken the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are backed by Iran.
“Deif was responsible for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7 and for many murderous attacks against Israeli civilians,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement. “He was Israel’s most-wanted person for years. His elimination establishes a very clear principle — whoever harms us, we will retaliate against them.”
The announcement came as large public funeral processions were held in Iran’s capital, Tehran, for Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on Wednesday by an explosion in Tehran; and near Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, for a Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday.
Israel has not admitted to killing Mr. Haniyeh, but American officials have assessed that it was responsible for the attack. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a direct strike on Israel in retaliation, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.
The killings of Mr. Shukr and Mr. Haniyeh have threatened to engulf the Middle East in a wider war and to derail cease-fire talks aimed at stopping the fighting in Gaza and releasing the remaining hostages there.
As the region braced for a possible escalation, some major airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut, and some of the families of the hostages protested outside Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, expressing concern that a cease-fire deal was slipping away.
“Prime minister, there’s a deal on the table — a deal that you proposed,” Ella Ben-Ami, whose father, Ohad, remains held captive by Hamas, said at a rally in Tel Aviv. “Please, don’t sabotage it. Don’t break this deal. Bring them home.”
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, during a stop in Mongolia on Thursday, did not directly address a reporter’s question about whether Mr. Netanyahu had misrepresented his desire to negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza, given the escalating tensions in the Middle East caused by the assassinations.
“The path that the region is on is toward more conflict, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity,” Mr. Blinken said. “And it is crucial that we break the cycle, and that starts with a cease-fire. It’s urgent that all parties make the right choices in the days ahead.”
Mr. Haniyeh, who was a top negotiator in the cease-fire talks, was killed by a bomb planted and remotely detonated in the guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Hours before Mr. Haniyeh was killed, Israeli fighter jets flew over Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed Mr. Shukr, a senior member of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has been exchanging strikes with Israel for months in what it calls a show of solidarity with Hamas. Israel has said Mr. Shukr oversaw Hezbollah’s campaign against Israel, including a rocket attack that killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights last weekend.
On Thursday, throngs of mourners crowded the streets of Tehran for Mr. Haniyeh’s funeral procession, surrounding a canopied truck adorned with flowers and streamers and bearing his coffin. Many waved the flags of Iran, Palestine and Hezbollah.
Mr. Khamenei and Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wiped away tears during prayers for Mr. Haniyeh, video of the funeral showed. The ayatollah also hugged and greeted Mr. Haniyeh’s son, who was in Tehran for the funeral.
The commander of Iran’s arms forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, also vowed to avenge the killing, saying at the funeral, “We are currently examining how we and the resistance will avenge the blood.” He added, “Different actions will take place that will make the Zionists regret it.”
At Mr. Shukr’s funeral inside a packed auditorium in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the crowd chanted, “Death to Israel,” and shouted, “We are here for you, Nasrallah,” as Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, appeared on a video screen.
In his speech, Mr. Nasrallah said that Hezbollah would retaliate against Israel for the killing of Mr. Shukr. Hezbollah and its allies were working on “a true response, not a show response, as some are trying to suggest,” he said. His unusually brief remarks appeared to stop short of the full-throated pledge to escalate Hezbollah’s fight with Israel that some had been expecting.
“We have entered a new phase,” Mr. Nasrallah said. Addressing Israel, he said, “You do not realize the red lines you have crossed.”
Hezbollah has dialed back its attacks along Israel’s northern border since the killing of Mr. Shukr, and Mr. Nasrallah said in his speech that he had ordered his fighters to remain calm. But he said that the group would resume operations on Friday and that retaliation for Mr. Shukr’s death would come later.
After Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, Mr. Shukr’s coffin was carried to the street outside and met by a sea of mourners, pumping their fists in the air. “No escape, no retreat,” the crowd shouted.
Mr. Netanyahu said in his statement that the Israeli military was prepared for an attack.
“Israel is in very high readiness for any scenario — both defensively and offensively,” he said. “We will impose a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any front.”
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