Days after Hamas shocked the Israeli security establishment with a full frontal assault on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was emphatic: The Palestinian terrorist group and its leadership were on borrowed time. Every single member of Hamas, Netanyahu said at the time, was “a dead man,” a boast that sounded awfully similar to George W. Bush’s declaration about al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks.
Nine months later, Hamas has lost thousands of low-level fighters and likely dozens of field commanders. Yet other than Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, no Hamas official is as important to the Israelis than Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ top military commander. Israel has spent months trying to knock this man off the board and had its best opportunity last weekend. For weeks, Israeli forces monitored a compound in the al-Mawasi area of Gaza where they suspected Deif was hiding out. The Israelis finally took action once intelligence suspected the elusive Palestinian militant was thought to be inside. Days after the strike, Deif remains unaccounted for—Israel still doesn’t know whether he is dead.
Although Deif may not be as etched in the Palestinian psyche like the late Yasser Arafat, he has taken on a legendary status. Israel has tried to assassinate him several times. Deif is like a ghost, seemingly nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Most Gazans don’t even know what he looks like. He moves between houses like a nomad, no doubt a security precaution given the prize on his head.
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