The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Thursday that Mohammed Deif, military wing commander and second in command of the Hamas militant group, was killed in an airstrike on Khan Yunis on July 13.
The strike targeting Deif on the Al-Mawasi refugee camp in July killed at least 90 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that it was unclear whether Deif had been killed in the attack.
The IDF confirmed Thursday that Deif was killed along with Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Yunis Brigade, and other Hamas operatives.
“Deif initiated, planned, and executed the October 7th massacre, in which 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and 251 hostages abducted into the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement.
Confirmation of Deif’s death came shortly after the assasination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukur in Lebanon.
Haniyeh had been living in exile in Qatar. He was in Tehran for the inauguration of the new Iranian president, where he was assassinated. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s assassination.
Israel confirmed on Tuesday that Shukur, a founding member of Hezbollah’s military wing, the Jihad Council, was “eliminated” by the IDF in an airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
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