Explained/ Who is Mohammed Deif? The leader of terrorist group Hamas and Israel’s ‘Most Wanted’ since 2002

The head of Hamas’ terrorist organisation armed wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif has been on Israel’s ‘Most Wanted List’ since 2002. Earlier on Saturday, as the Hamas militants stormed the Israeli territories via air, land, and sea, the terrorist group declared the start of the ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ against Tel Aviv. 

Hamas’ political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, in a statement, said that the operation against Israel is a "heroic epic" in response to aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque, adding that the Jewish state has crossed the red lines. As the Israeli Army declared a “state of readiness” for war against Hamas, which fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel, here’s a look at the profile of the group’s head Muhammad Deif.

Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip. Credit: AP

Hamas chief Muhammad Deif's profile:

• Born in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in the early 1960s, Deif joined Hamas during the first Intifada or the Palestinian uprising in 1987. He was arrested by the Israelis for his activities in 1989.
• He returned to Gaza in the early 1990s having spent more than a year in an Israeli jail.
• Deif assumed the role of Hamas’s military head in 2002 following the death of the terrorist faction’s predecessor Salah Shehade in a raid.
• Deif has been on Israel’s most wanted list for several years and has survived four Israeli assassination attempts.
• The Israeli pursuit of the Hamas chief is rumoured to have left him blind in one eye and limbs amputated.
• Not many people know what Deif actually looks like now but Israeli sources have reportedly said that the Hamas chief is wheelchair-bound. But the Hamas spokesperson has often insisted that Deif is in fine health and still exercises full control of the Qassam Brigade.
• In one such attack years ago, the Hamas leader lost his wife and child in the strike but was reported to have survived himself.
• Hamas's exiled deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk, at the time, notified in a post that Deif’s wife and child were killed in an airstrike, without elaborating on further details. “The wife of the great leader was martyred with his daughter,” Marzouk said.
• For years, the Israeli Army has attempted to neutralise the Hamas chief but has remained tight-lipped about it. "Mohammad Deif deserves to die just like [Osama] bin Laden. He is an arch murderer, and as long as we have an opportunity, we will try to kill him," Interior Minister Gideon Saar, told army radio.