A senior Hamas official said in an interview on 15 August that the group’s military leader Mohammed Deif – whose death the Zionist regimee announced at the start of this month – is, in fact, alive.
“Mohammed Deif is fine,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in an interview with AP on Thursday.
“What the ‘Israelis’ did by mentioning his name was an excuse to justify the massacre, because it was an ugly massacre and it was in an area which Israel had said was a safe-zone,” Hamdan added.
The Zionist regime launched massive strikes on southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi region on 13 July. The attacks, which targeted a designated “safe-zone” resulted in the killing of at least 90 Palestinian civilians and the wounding of hundreds more.
According to details published by the New York Times (NYT) on 14 July, the Zionist army – before launching the brutal strikes on 13 July – had spent weeks monitoring a villa in the southern Gaza Strip where it believed another top Hamas leader, Rafaa Salameh, was hiding out.
The Zionist army was hoping that Deif would show up at the villa, and carried out the attacks after receiving intelligence that he appeared to be present.
“Tel Aviv” said after the strike that Salameh’s killing was verified but that it was uncertain if Deif – the main target – had been successfully assassinated.
Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told Al Jazeera on 13 July in a message addressed to Netanyahu: “Mohammed Deif is listening to you now and laughing at your empty statements.”
Weeks later, on 1 August, the Zionist army said it had confirmed that Deif was killed in the brutal Al-Mawasi strike, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant photographed crossing the Qassam Brigades leader off a list.
“The killing of the master murderer Mohammed Deif, the ‘Bin Laden of Gaza,’ on July 13, 2024, is a big step,” Gallant said.
Deif has been on the occupying regime’s most-wanted list for over three decades. The Qassam Brigades leader has survived at least seven Zionist assassination attempts and was previously said to be possibly missing an eye and some limbs.
In December, a Hebrew report revealing new video evidence obtained by the occupying army showed Deif walking on two legs shocked the Zionist public.