Mohammad Deif is a Palestinian activist and the top military commander of the Izzdin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. He has been the Israeli military’s “most wanted” since 1995. In July 2002, he became Hamas’s most famous fighter after Israel assassinated Salah Shehade, leader of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades.
Wiki/Biography
Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri was born in 1965 in Khan Yunis (58 years old in 2023) in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. When he was born, his mother was living in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, which was established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He comes from a low-income family and had to take a break from school to help support his family. He initially worked with his father in the textile and upholstery industry, later setting up a poultry farm and working as a driver. Mohammed’s association with the Hamas movement began in late 1987. He later returned to school and earned a science degree from the Islamic University of Gaza (1988). He studied subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology. He enjoyed the arts and was in charge of the university’s entertainment committee. Muhammad founded the Islamic theater group al-Ayedun and acted in various plays. While studying biology at the Islamic University, he became president of the Muslim Brotherhood student union, from which Hamas was founded in 1987. For decades, he lived in a different house every night to avoid being tracked and killed by Israel. Because of his nomadic lifestyle, he was known as Mohammed Deif or El Deif, which means “the guest” in Arabic.
family
Parents and siblings
He was born into a family of Palestinian refugees from Al-Qubeiba who were forced to leave their village during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Deif’s mother died in January 2011. In 2023, Mohammed Deif’s brother Abd al-Fattah Diab was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his father’s home.
wife and children
In 2011, he married Wydad Asforla. They have two children, a daughter named Sara and a son named Ali. Wydad, Ali and Sara were killed in an airstrike in 2014. Sarah was only three years old at the time and Ali was a seven-month-old baby.
Wydad Asforla’s father carries the body of Ali Deif, son of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, to the mosque during a funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip
religion
He is the leader of the Islamist group Hamas.
Hamas
Hamas was founded by Palestinian imam and activist Ahmed Yassin in 1987, after the first intifada broke out against Israel. The First Intifada was an ongoing series of protests and violent riots by Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and by Israel out of frustration with Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1989, Israel detained Deif, resulting in him being imprisoned for 16 months without trial for his alleged involvement in the movement’s military activities. In 1990, Dave joined Hamas through his long-time associates Yahya Ayyash and Adnan Ghor. Hamas is the Sunni Islamic political and military organization that governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Hamas leaders Adnan Ghor (left) and Yahya Ayyash (right)
In mid-1991, Mohammed and his colleagues established the military wing of Hamas, known as the Qassam Brigades. The Qassam Brigades opposed the peace process championed by then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were supposed to pave the way for a two-state solution for a new Palestine that coexisted peacefully. The road is parallel to Israel. As a result, Deif organized numerous terrorist attacks against Israel in the 1990s, resulting in large numbers of deaths and undermining the peace process. In 1994, Deif played a key role in the kidnapping and murder of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers Shahar Simani, Aryeh Frankenthal and Nachshon Wachsman. Deif learned the skills of assembling IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) from his mentor Yahya Ayyash, who was killed in 1995. After Ayyash’s death in 1995, Deif began serving as an “engineer” wing in the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigade of the Hamas armed forces. In 1996, Deif planned the bus bombing on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. Hamas suicide bombers used explosives prepared by Adnan Aour to blow up two buses, killing about 45 people. In March 2000, five suicide bombers he sent to Israel were killed by Yamam, Israel’s national counterterrorism force. Deif was arrested in May 2000 by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s security forces. He escaped from prison in December 2000. In 2002, he took over as commander of the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigade after the Israeli assassination of Salah Shehad.
Hamas leader Mohammed Deif
As Israel and Egypt gradually tighten control of the Gaza border, Hamas has developed rockets and other military means to fight back. Deif is considered a co-designer of the Qassam rocket. In 2005, a video of Deev appeared on the Internet in which he promised “hell” after Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip. He said,
Today you leave the hell of Gaza in shame, but not completely, because you continue to occupy Palestine… We tell the Zionists who have polluted our soil, we tell you that all of Palestine will become hell. “
In 2006, an Israeli F16 plane attacked a house where senior Hamas leaders were meeting, and Deif suffered a serious spinal injury during the meeting. After the incident, Ahmed Jabari served as the acting commander of the “Qassam Brigades” of Hamas’s military organization. On September 8, 2015, the U.S. State Department placed Deive on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist List. In 2021, Deif issued a clear and final warning that Hamas “will not stand idly by and the enemy will pay a heavy price” if Israel expels dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. In 2023, Deif masterminded a series of coordinated attacks codenamed “Aqsa Floods.” Some 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. In addition, 2,500 Palestinian militants broke through the Gaza-Israel separation wall, massacred and set fire to civilian communities, and attacked IDF military bases near the Gaza Strip.
Photos of Mohammed Deif
trying to kill deif
As of 2023, Deif had successfully escaped seven assassination attempts in 20 years, including five Israeli air strikes. In 2001, Israel first attempted to assassinate Deif. In the first assassination attempt in his life, he is believed to have lost an eye, and in a subsequent assassination he lost part of his arm, which left him disabled. There were reports that he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, 2002, but Israeli intelligence officials soon confirmed that he survived the attack. On July 12, 2006, an Israeli F16 aircraft attacked a house where senior Hamas officials were meeting. Deif survived the blast but suffered severe spinal injuries. On August 19, 2014, the Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on a house near Sheikh Radwan, Gaza City, killing his wife, 7-month-old son, and 3-year-old daughter. During the “Operation Wall Keeper” incident in May 2021, there were reports that the Israeli military attempted to assassinate Deif twice within a week, but both times he narrowly escaped at the last moment.
Facts/Trivia
- In February 2006, Israeli media reportedly reported that Deif was dissatisfied with the armistice agreement announced by Hamas and was considering leaving Hamas to join the newly formed Al Qaeda organization in the Gaza Strip. However, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades denied the move.
- After Deif’s wife, Widad Asfoura, was killed in an airstrike in 2014, Deif’s mother-in-law said she would be honored if Deif could marry her other two daughters. she says,
If Deif asks for the help of my other daughters, I will gladly agree, and even if she too is martyred, I will agree to the third. I am honored to have Deive as my daughter’s husband and as the father of their children. “
- He was often called the “Cat with Nine Lives” because he escaped numerous assassination attempts during his lifetime. His other names include Abu Khalid.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education