4 August 2024

Israel Says It Killed Hamas Military Chief in July Airstrike

Carrie Keller-Lynn

Israel has determined that it killed top Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in a July airstrike, the country’s military said Thursday, eliminating a planner of the Oct. 7 attacks and a militant it had tried to kill for decades.

Deif is the most senior military leader of the U.S.-designated terrorist group whom Israel says it has killed in more than nine months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and the third high-ranking enemy of the country to be declared dead in 48 hours.

Israel said Tuesday it had killed Fuad Shukr, a top commander with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, in an airstrike in Beirut, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a mysterious strike just hours later in Tehran, an attack Iran blamed on Israel.

Those two attacks provoked furious responses from Hezbollah and Iran and have sparked concerns of an escalatory spiral that could lead to a wider Middle East war.

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