Gaza:
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has introduced that its army chief, Mohammed Deif, was killed by the Israeli military within the Gaza Strip.
In a press release on Thursday, Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the brigades, additionally confirmed that Marwan Issa, Al-Qassam’s deputy chief of employees, had been killed, Xinhua information company reported.
“The enemy has assassinated two of our nice leaders, however their legacy and resistance will proceed,” Obeida stated.
He added that the assassination of Hamas army leaders won’t cease the Palestinian resistance in opposition to Israel.
No extra particulars have been supplied.
On August 1, 2024, Israel’s army claimed that it had killed Deif in an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
Israel has accused Deif of being one of many masterminds of the Hamas assault on southern Israeli cities on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s army stated it had killed Deif in July final yr, however Hamas had not confirmed this till now.
Israel has stated that Deif was one of many figures accountable for planning the October 7 assaults in southern Israel through which 1,200 folks have been killed and 251 taken hostage.
Deif was broadly seen because the second-ranking Hamas official in Gaza, behind Yahya Sinwar, the group’s chief within the territory, who was additionally killed by Israeli forces final yr.
In Might 2024, the Worldwide Legal Courtroom stated it was in search of arrest warrants for Deif and different senior Hamas figures, saying that they had “cheap grounds” to imagine they bore duty for the October 7 assaults, which noticed round 1,200 Israelis killed.
Deif was recognized to have helped engineer the development of tunnels which have allowed Hamas fighters to enter Israel from Gaza. He was additionally credited with designing Hamas’s signature weapon, the Qassam rocket.
The US introduced Al-Qassam’s deputy chief of employees, Marwan Issa’s dying in March final yr.
Issa was the deputy commander of Hamas’s army wing and was thought-about one in every of Israel’s most-wanted males.
The European Union, which positioned the Hamas chief on its terrorist blacklist, linked him on to the October 7 assault.
The most recent conflict was triggered when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s 15-month army offensive killed greater than 47,460 Palestinians within the territory, in line with Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry.
A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel got here into impact on January 19.
A complete of 15 Israeli hostages have been freed since then.
Thus far, 400 Palestinian prisoners — starting from these serving lengthy sentences for bombings and different assaults to youngsters held with out cost — have been launched.
Most have returned to the occupied West Financial institution, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, whereas about 70 of probably the most severe offenders have been deported.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)