The possible death of Hamas mastermind Mohammed Deif is a reason to celebrate

Israel has attempted seven times to assassinate Mohammed Deif, the military head behind Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem tried for the eighth time on Saturday.

There is growing optimism in Israel that the Israeli military has succeeded in eliminating the mastermind of the October 7 terrorist attack that killed nearly 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.

Forty-five of the dead were US citizens and eight Americans – largely forgotten by the White House – are still being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Blame their deaths and fate on Deif. He was the main architect behind October 7 – and countless other deadly kinetic operations against Israel.

In the world of linguistic homophones, Deif is actually a synonym for “death.” However, Deif is not his real name.

He was born Mohammed al-Masri in 1965 in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip. Fifty years later, the evil chemist was designated a specially designated global terrorist by the US State Department.

Deif was responsible for Hamas’ military strategy in the 2014 war against Israel. That war was a harbinger of what was to come nine years later. Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers – and the Israeli military responded with full force.

Targeting Israeli civilians has long been part of Deif’s deadly game plan. In 1996, he was the main planner of the so-called Jaffa Road Bombings, which killed 25 civilians, including two American students studying in Israel – 25-year-old Mathew Eisenfeld and 22-year-old Sara Ducker.

Deif has been plotting against and killing Americans for decades.

That he may have met his end in and around Khan Yunis is fitting – and a testament to how evil Deif is.
Not only is it his birthplace, but it is also a symbol of how Hamas military leaders hide and fight behind Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Israel had declared the southern part of the Strip a safe zone for civilians. In response, Deif and Rafa Salama, the Hamas brigade commander of the Khan Younis forces, tried to hide there among Palestinian war refugees – men, women and children.

Hamas denies that Deif was the target of the attack. Instead, according to a Wall Street Journal report, it issued a statement as expected saying: “These false claims only serve to cover up the extent of the gruesome massacre.”

Initial alleged visual evidence of the Israeli attack clearly indicates otherwise. Given the scale of the detonations and destruction, the Israeli army was looking for something strategically and/or tactically big – in the spirit of Mohammed Deif.

Jerusalem has vowed to eliminate, in one way or another, every Hamas planner and participant in October 7.
Just days after Hamas attacked Israeli kibbutzim and the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel, the Shin Bet – Israel’s secret intelligence agency – “established a new unit called Nili, a Hebrew acronym for ‘The Eternity of Israel Will Not Lie,'” according to a Jerusalem Post report.

In early March, Israeli forces confirmed the killing of Marwan Issa, Deif’s military deputy, who is widely considered Hamas’ third-highest military commander.

As we warned in late December, Hamas leaders are all dead men digging tunnels – and more and more of them are being found dead. Deif could now be the last.

The Israeli military’s attempt to eliminate Deif comes at a critical time in ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha, Qatar. Just days ago, President Biden welcomed progress on the proposed multi-stage ceasefire framework after Hamas reportedly dropped key demands.

Egypt and Jordan immediately condemned Saturday’s Israeli attack – and Jerusalem warned its citizens of a likely response from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas, meanwhile, claims that more than 70 people were killed in the attack.

Given Deif’s monstrous history of orchestrating Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli and American civilians, his planning of war actions against Israel, and his role as commander of the Qassam Brigades, he is a legitimate military target under the rules and laws of war – and his mere presence among civilians in Khan Yunis is a war crime.

A Fatah spokesman in the West Bank acknowledged this, noting: “Hamas cannot hide among civilians. Why was Deif in the Al-Mawasi camp?”

Why actually?

Mark Toth writes about national security and foreign policy. Retired Colonel Jonathan Sweet served for 30 years as a military intelligence officer.