After announcing his martyrdom... Who is Mohammed Deif, the Chief of Staff of the Qassam Brigades?

Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), mourned the commander of the Qassam Brigades' staff, Mohammed Deif, on Thursday. He said in a videotaped speech, "We announce to our great people the martyrdom of the commander of the Qassam Brigades' staff, Mohammed Deif."

Abu Obeida announced "the martyrdom of a group of senior mujahideen from the members of the Qassam Military Council" with Al-Daif, including the Chief of Staff of Al-Qassam, Mohammed Al-Daif, and a number of leaders, most notably Marwan Issa, Deputy Chief of Staff of Al-Qassam, the Commander of the Weapons and Combat Services Section, Ghazi Abu Tama'a, the Commander of the Human Resources Section, Raed Thabet, and the Commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade, Rafeh Salama.

Abu Obeida stressed that "the martyrdom of our great leaders - despite our great loss - did not and will not weaken the resolve of our battalions and resistance."

The soul cries, the heart cries, the eyes cry…

Who else deserves to cry, our master and leader?

The great loss, the devastating loss, is you, master of men, hero of heroes, spirit of resistance, and weapon of liberation, Chief of Staff Mohammed Deif. pic.twitter.com/iFZu1KMPrR

— Tamer | Tamer (@tamerqdh) January 30, 2025

Who is Mohammed Al-Deif?

Muhammad al-Deif, a Palestinian theater artist and politician, contributed to the establishment of the first Islamic artistic group in Palestine called “Al-A’idoun,” before becoming one of the most wanted persons for liquidation by the Israeli occupation, and then appointed as the general commander of the military wing of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The guest's personality is surrounded by mystery, and his name has always been associated with caution, wariness, and quick wit. He only appears occasionally, and has not appeared since a failed assassination attempt - among many attempts - in late September 2002, except in statements related to military operations of the resistance, the last of which was Operation "Al-Aqsa Flood" at dawn on Saturday, October 7, 2023. Hamas announced his martyrdom on January 30, 2025.

Birth and upbringing

Mohamed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masry - known as Mohamed Al-Deif - was born in 1965 to a Palestinian refugee family that was forced to leave their town of Al-Qubayba inside occupied Palestine in 1948.

This poor family initially settled in a refugee camp, before settling in Khan Yunis camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

His family's extreme poverty forced him early on to work in several professions, to help his father who worked in a spinning shop. After he grew up, he established a small farm to raise chickens, then obtained a driver's license to improve his income.

Study and training

He studied science at the Islamic University of Gaza, and during this period he emerged as an active student in advocacy, student and relief work, and in the field of theater.

Intellectual orientation

During his university studies, Al-Daif was immersed in Islamic thought, so he joined the Muslim Brotherhood and was one of the most prominent activists in the Islamic Bloc. He then joined the Hamas movement and was considered one of its most prominent field men.

Political experience

The Israeli occupation forces arrested Muhammad al-Deif in 1989, and he spent 16 months in its prisons, and remained detained without trial on charges of working in the military apparatus of Hamas.

His release from prison coincided with the beginning of the prominent appearance of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the Palestinian resistance arena, after carrying out several operations against Israeli targets.

He stressed that the leadership of the Palestinian resistance and the Al-Qassam Brigades are closely monitoring what is happening in Jerusalem, before taking actual action in response to the continued Israeli aggression in Jerusalem. The occupation forces had prevented the chanting of his name in the demonstrations or the protesters raising the Palestinian flag.

Announcing the "Al-Aqsa Flood"

On Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, the commander-in-chief of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades announced the start of a military operation against Israel called “Al-Aqsa Flood” and the launching of thousands of rockets towards it.

Mohammed al-Deif said in an audio message that the first strike of "Al-Aqsa Flood" targeted Israeli military sites, airports and fortifications, and that 5,000 rockets and shells were launched during the first twenty minutes of the operation.

He pointed out that Operation "Noah's Flood" comes in light of the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, the occupation's denial of international laws, and in light of American and Western support and international silence.

Al-Daif explained that the Qassam leadership "decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation, and the time has come for it to run rampant without being held accountable," as he put it.

Mohammed al-Deif called on Palestinian youth in the West Bank, Jerusalem and inside Israel to rise up in support of Al-Aqsa, saying, “Today, everyone who has a gun should take it out, because the time has come.”

The guest also said, "I call on our brothers in the resistance in Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Iraq and Syria to join forces with the resistance in Palestine."

Assassination attempts

The man's military importance made him a highly wanted man for Israel, whose intelligence agencies have been working day and night to track him down and look for opportunities to trap him.

Israel, which called him "the head of the snake" and "the son of death," accuses him of being behind a number of major military operations against Israeli targets, and has attempted to assassinate him on several occasions, the last of which was in the summer of 2014 during the aggression on Gaza.

Israel then carried out successive missile strikes on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza, as a result of which Mohammed al-Deif lost his wife and infant son.

In the face of Israeli surveillance, the guest has become cautious and vigilant. He does not use mobile phones or modern technological devices, and is careful in all his movements, just as he is careful in choosing his close circle, which is few in number.

Despite his success in staying alive over the past years, Al-Daif - nicknamed Abu Khaled - came close to death in five assassination attempts in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, and the last attempt in 2014.

The most famous of these attempts was in late September 2002, when Israel admitted that he had miraculously survived when its helicopters bombed cars in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza, retracting previous assertions that al-Daif had been killed in the aforementioned attack.

Although he was directly injured, leaving him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, according to media reports, Israel has not been at peace, and still considers him one of its most wanted men.

Israeli intelligence tried to liquidate Al-Daif again, and justified its failure by saying that he was a “target with extraordinary survivability” who was surrounded by mystery and was very careful to stay out of sight.

The guest never appears on the media screens, and all that is known about him are his written or recorded statements, which makes it difficult for Israeli intelligence to succeed in eliminating him.

Hamas announced in early August 2023 the martyrdom of Al-Dhaif's wife and his 7-month-old son, Ali, in an Israeli airstrike that attempted to target him.

On July 13, 2024, the occupation attacked the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis with a series of raids, which it announced were aimed at assassinating Al-Daif. Hamas denied that the raid targeted Al-Daif, and said that these were allegations to cover up the extent of the horrific massacre committed by the occupation in these raids.

Arrest warrant

On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he had submitted a request to the court to issue an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant, and on the other hand, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity following the events of October 2023.

Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, and Muhammad Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, known as Muhammad Deif, the commander-in-chief of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the movement's military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement's political bureau, were responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel, he said.

Commenting on the decision, Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for three leaders of the Palestinian movement "equates the victim with the executioner," adding that the court's decision encourages Israel to continue its "war of extermination."

Source: Al Jazeera