JERUSALEM
— The fate of Muhammed Deif, the commander in chief of Hamas’s military
wing, remained a mystery on Wednesday, like much of his life spent in
the shadows.
The
Israeli warplanes that dropped at least five bombs on a house in the
Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City late Tuesday were seeking Mr.
Deif, in at least the fifth attempt to assassinate him.
Eight
years ago, as Mr. Deif met with other top Hamas military officials on
the ground floor of a three-story house in Sheikh Radwan, the Israeli
Air Force struck at 3 a.m. Nine members of a family on the upper floors
of the house were killed, but Mr. Deif and his comrades escaped.
The
latest bombing struck closer: One of Mr. Deif’s wives, Widad, 28, and
their infant son, Ali, were killed along with fellow residents Wafaa
al-Dalo, 48, and her two sons, Ahmed 18, and Mustafa 14, according to
the Gaza Health Ministry and neighbors. The house was reduced to rubble.
It
was not clear whether Mr. Deif had been in the house at the time, and
neither Hamas nor Israel provided evidence of his survival or demise.
“It was like an earthquake,” said a neighbor, Abu Fayez al-Shorafa,
describing the powerful impact of the attack. “Everybody went out to
check what happened.”
After
nearly three decades of living underground and two decades as No. 1 on
Israel’s most-wanted list, and having survived severe wounds from two of
the previous assassination attempts, Mr. Deif, now approaching 50, has
become a symbol of Hamas’s staying power.
On
Wednesday, a day after the latest short-term cease-fire between Israel
and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip had collapsed, along with
the talks in Cairo for a more lasting truce, more than 140 rockets were
fired into Israel, which carried out at least 70 airstrikes against
launch sites, weapons stores and other targets, according to the
military. At least 19 Palestinians were killed.
Even
after a month of fierce fighting, which led to the deaths of nearly
2,000 residents of Gaza, and 64 soldiers and three civilians on the
Israeli side, Hamas appeared unbowed.
As
the architect who built Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades,
into a formidable fighting force equipped with rockets, tunnels and
frogmen primed for deadly attacks, Mr. Deif is lionized by many
Palestinians as a model of prowess and dedication in the battle against
Israel.
“He
is a pillar and the symbol of the military and jihadi work, and he is
among the decision makers,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas official in
Gaza. Without specifying whether Mr. Deif was alive or dead, Mr. Barhoum
said Mr. Deif, his wife and son “are part of the body that has the
resistance as its soul.”
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel refused to respond specifically
to questions about Mr. Deif at a news conference in Tel Aviv on
Wednesday. Mr. Netanyahu said only: “The heads of terror organizations
and their commanders are a legitimate and top priority target. Nobody is
immune.”
Ronen
Bergman, an Israeli journalist specializing in security affairs who is
researching a book on Israel’s intelligence and counterterrorism
efforts, said: “Deif is the only prime military figure in Hamas to have
survived so long. The fact that he was able to escape multiple
assassination attempts and recover from severe injuries has built him
the image and prestige of a bulletproof legend.”
Whether
Mr. Deif was eliminated or not, the targeting of one of his family
shelters is likely to roil the Hamas leadership and raise internal fears
of a security leak.
At
a news conference in Gaza on Wednesday, the masked spokesman for the
Qassam Brigades known as Abu Obeida declared the Egyptian-brokered truce
talks dead. He warned foreign airlines not to fly to Ben-Gurion
International Airport, outside Tel Aviv, starting from 6 a.m. on
Thursday and cautioned Israelis against gathering in large numbers
because of the risk from rocket fire.
Major
American and European airlines temporarily suspended flights to and
from Israel last month after a rocket fell about a mile from the
airport, a move that deeply disturbed Israelis.
Mr.
Deif was last heard from about three weeks ago in a rare, two-minute
audio recording aired on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television station. He said
that Hamas was winning the war and that there would be no cease-fire
until Israel stopped its attacks and the seven-year blockade on Gaza was
lifted. “We will not accept any middle-ground solutions at the expense
of the resistance and our people’s freedom,” he said.
Born
in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Mr. Deif was a neighbor and a
childhood friend of Muhammad Dahlan, who grew up to be a Palestinian
Authority security chief assigned to rein in Hamas; Mr. Dahlan now lives
abroad. On opposite sides of the Palestinian divide, the pair are said
to have remained on good terms for many years.
Mr.
Deif joined Hamas around the time of its founding in the late 1980s and
soon emerged as a prominent figure. He masterminded a series of deadly
bus bombings in Israel in the mid-1990s that were meant to avenge the assassination of Yahya Ayyash,
a Hamas bomb maker who was killed by a booby-trapped cellphone. In
2002, Mr. Deif succeeded Salah Shehadeh the founder of the military wing
of Hamas, who was killed in an Israeli missile strike on his home that also killed at least 14 other people. Mr. Deif’s top lieutenant, Ahmed al-Jabari, was assassinated in 2012.
Israel’s
previous attempts to assassinate Mr. Deif happened in 2001, 2002, 2003
and 2006. He lost an eye and some limbs, according to Israeli reports.
Mr.
Deif went on to establish six territorial brigades of fighters and
maintained direct contact with the commanders in the field, according to
Ehud Yaari, an Israeli expert on Palestinian affairs and a fellow of
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. To avoid detection by
Israeli intelligence, Mr. Yaari said, Mr. Deif would send instructions
through confidants on motorcycles.
Mr.
Shorafa, the neighbor in Sheikh Radwan, said he did not know whether
Mr. Deif had been living in the home that was bombed. It is common
practice for senior militants in Hamas to move from apartment to
apartment, often rented in others’ names, to avoid detection by Israeli
intelligence. Mr. Deif’s real family name is al-Masri. Deif is an Arabic
nickname meaning “guest” in Arabic, because he does not settle in one
home.
Mustafa
Asfoura said that his daughter Widad married Mr. Deif about four years
ago, and that they had four children. Ali, at 8 months, was the
youngest; the other children were injured. Mr. Asfoura, 55, said he had
long expected his daughter to die in such a way because she was married
to “the No. 1 wanted man in Israel.”
“If
Israel wants to kill a fighter, why would it kill women and children
beside him?” Mr. Asfoura asked. “Let them kill him alone.”
Hamas
put out a public call for people to attend the funeral of Mr. Deif’s
wife and baby, and hundreds joined the procession in the Jabaliya
refugee camp.
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