Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades officially mourns Chief of Staff Mohamed Deif 1965-2024): Abu Obeida

Ahram Online , Friday 31 Jan 2025

Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida officially mourned the brigades Chief of Staff Mohamed Deif, saying he was killed while leading the battle against the Israeli army near Khan Younis last July.

Mohammed Deif
File Photo: Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. Photo courtesy of IRNA website.

 

In a televised address, Abu Obeida said: “We mourn the martyrdom of our leader, Mohammed al-Deif, to our great people.” 

Abu Obeida also mourned several other members of Qsaam's Military Council who were also killed during battles against the Israeli army.

Among them were Marwan Issa, the Deputy Chief of Staff; Ghazi Abu Tama’a, Commander of the Weapons and Combat Services Section; Raed Thabet, Commander of the Human Resources Section; Rafe’ Salama, Commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade; and Ahmed Al-Ghandour, the Commander of the Northern Brigade. 

Additionally, Ayman Noufal, Commander of the Central Governorate Brigade, was also reported as martyred earlier during the conflict.

"The Al-Qassam Brigades announce to our great people the martyrdom of a group of distinguished fighters and heroic commanders," said Abu Obeida.

Despite the tremendous loss of leadership, Abu Obeida reassured the Palestinian people and resistance fighters that the sacrifices of these commanders would not break the resolve of the Qassam Brigades. 

 

Israel had previously claimed to have killed Deif and confirmed he was killed in early August.

Hamas refused to confirm these reports until Thursday’s announcement.

Deif and Yahya Sinwar, killed in a battle against Israeli troops near Khan Younis on 16 October 2024, were credited as the principal architects of Hamas's Al-Aqsa Flood Operation that obliterated Israel's Gaza Battalion on 7 October 2023.

 


Mohamed Deif, aka Abu Khaled, was born in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip, in 1965 to a refugee family expelled by Zionist militias from al-Qubeiba in Historic Palestine during the 1948 war.

He joined Hamas in 1987, weeks after its formation during the first intifada against the Israeli occupation.

Deif was arrested by Israeli forces in 1989 and imprisoned for 16 months without trial.

After his release from Israeli jails in a prisoner exchange in 1990, Deif co-founded the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades as the armed wing of Hamas in the 1990s, earning the nickname of the mastermind among Israelis and Palestinians alike.

A top target on Israel's most wanted list, Abu Khaled survived multiple assassination attempts.

In 2006, he orchestrated a raid into Israel that killed two Israeli soldiers and captured Gilad Shalit.

Deif orchestrated the five-year effort to deceive Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, about Shalit's location in Gaza.

Hamas released Shalit in October 2011in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Sinwar, in the largest prisoner exchange in the history of the conflict to date.

The Palestinian Authority arrested Deif in 2000 during the second intifada but released him a year later.

Deif took full command of Hamas in 2002 after the assassination of Al-Qassam's commander-in-chief, Salah Shehadeh.

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