COMMANDER Hamas military, Mohammed Deif is one of the figures Hamas which is Israel’s main target. However, despite repeated assassination attempts, Israel still failed to overthrow Mohammed Deif.
The 55-year-old Deif is commander of the Al Qassam or Izzenedine Al Qassam brigade, Hamas’s military wing, which has carried out a number of attacks on Israel, including bus bombings and attacks that killed three members of the Israeli defense forces (IDF).
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During the air raid on Gaza, Palestine Over the past week, Israel has tried twice to kill Deif, but both attempts have failed.
It is not Israel’s first attempt at getting rid of Deif. According to Israeli security sources, air strikes in 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2014 cost Deif an eye, two legs and a hand, as well as deify his wife and two children.
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The failure of these attempts made Deif a legend, likened to a character who cannot be killed. The AFP News Agency reports that Deif is nicknamed the Cat 9 Lives because he repeatedly escapes death.
CNBC reported that Deif grew up in the Younis camp refugee camp and joined Hamas and was involved in the first intifada in 1989. He then joined the Hamas military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades when it was formed in 1990.
In 1994, Deif was involved in the kidnapping and murder of three IDF soldiers. He, along with his partner Yahya Ayyash, were also responsible for the bus bombings in Jerusalem and Ashkelon, which killed about 50 Israelis in 1994.
He worked alongside Yahya Ayyash and Salah Shehadeh, both of whom were killed by Israel, alongside Hassan Salameh who was sentenced to life in prison in Israel.
Deif was also instrumental in various Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli territory that began when Ayyash, a Hamas bomb-maker, was killed by Israeli attacks in 1996.
When Hamas started its rocket attacks in 2000, it was Deif who developed the production of the rockets Al Qassam used.
Deif became the top military commander of the Al Qassam Brigades after his predecessor Ahmed Jabari was killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2012.
He is a figure that is difficult to trace his whereabouts, and according to Global Research, only two Hamas figures know where he is, and only Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has direct contact with Deif.
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