The unprecedented scale of the attack launched by Hamas on Saturday October 7 is confirmed by the 1,500 bodies of attackers already counted on Israeli soil by the IDF army. The Hebrew State’s response has begun and will notably focus its research on one of the known masterminds of the operation, a certain Mohammed Deïf.
The Israeli army has claimed that 1,500 bodies of Hamas attackers have been identified on Israeli soil since the attacks, confirming that several hundred fighters took part in the operation on Saturday October 7. These attacks on an unprecedented scale were coordinated by the Ezzedine Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas and led by one man: Mohammed Deïf.
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His birth name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri. Israeli intelligence services believe that this Hamas chief general was born in the 1960s in the south of Gaza, in the Khan Younis refugee camp. But when it comes to Deïf, no soldier, no expert, no official risks asserting anything and this is probably what makes the architect of the operation even more dangerous. “Al Aqsa Storm”. The mystery, the fantasy surrounding Mohammed Deïf have contributed to making him public enemy number 1 of Israel for many years, and he is undoubtedly the final objective of the response being prepared against the Gaza Strip. .
An invisible always on the move nicknamed “the guest”
This character is so mysterious that there are only three photos of him in total, three authenticated photos which all date back more than 20 years. Mohammed Deif is the Israeli army’s uncontrollable nightmare. An invisible nicknamed “the guest”, because he is forced to sleep in a different place every night. But it was his voice that was identified on Saturday in Hamas’ message of demand: “In light of the repeated crimes against our people, the rampant occupation in defiance of international laws and resolutions, today, the anger of Al Aqsa unleashes the rage of our people, our nation and the liberation of our communities around the world. The day has come to make our criminal enemy realize that his time is over.”
Leading the military branch of Hamas since 2002, Mohammed Deïf has escaped several attacks. According to the Israeli army, in 2006 he lost an arm and a leg in an F16 attack, which hit the wrong floor of the building where he was. Later, in 2014, during a new attempt, he escaped the dropping of five anti-bunker bombs, explosions which his wife and 8-month-old child did not survive.
A turning point in Hamas’ military strategy
Deïf was then designated as a priority target by Gideon Saar, the Israeli Interior Minister at the time. He says of him that “like Bin Laden, Mohammed Deïf deserves to die”. This is when Hamas accelerates its desire to “change dimension” facing Israel, under the leadership of Deïf, who never accepted the principle of a dotted war, interspersed with ceasefires.
The rocket factory, until now artisanal, then became industrial. Deïf is also at the origin of the construction of the Gaza tunnels, the basis of the strategy he always wanted to put in place. A simultaneous war strategy, aerial and underground. A strategy at the origin of a military success on Saturday October 7, having so far caused nearly 1,000 deaths on the Israeli side and almost as many on the Palestinian side.