Video printed by Hamas reveals the shadow of Mohammed Deif, believed to have masterminded the militant group’s assault from Gaza on Israel within the early hours of Oct. 7.

Balkis Press/ABACA by way of Reuters

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Balkis Press/ABACA by way of Reuters

Video printed by Hamas reveals the shadow of Mohammed Deif, believed to have masterminded the militant group’s assault from Gaza on Israel within the early hours of Oct. 7.

Balkis Press/ABACA by way of Reuters

LONDON — His nom de guerre “Deif” means “guest” in Arabic — a reference to his behavior of staying in a unique home every night time to evade Israeli assaults. Mohammed Deif is the elusive head of Hamas‘ army wing and the person believed to be behind the group’s unprecedented Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

Within hours of the assault, a recorded assertion was launched by a Hamas TV channel, based on Reuters, claiming to point out Deif. “Enough is enough,” the determine within the video mentioned, showing as a silhouette. He introduced the start of what he referred to as “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” a reference to the mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest web site, the place Israelis have carried out current raids.

The dying toll from Saturday’s assault — wherein Hamas militants entered Israel from Gaza on paragliders and broke by a barrier fence, killing and kidnapping individuals — has reached 1,300. An estimated 150 individuals have been kidnapped from Israel and brought hostage.

A member of the Israeli safety forces stands close to burning automobiles following a rocket assault from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on Oct. 7.

Ahmad Gharabli/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Ahmad Gharabli/AFP by way of Getty Images

A member of the Israeli safety forces stands close to burning automobiles following a rocket assault from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on Oct. 7.

Ahmad Gharabli/AFP by way of Getty Images

Israel’s ongoing retaliatory offensive on the Gaza Strip has thus far killed 1,500 Palestinians. Israel gave an order Thursday for greater than 1 million individuals residing in northern Gaza to evacuate the realm.

Here is what to know concerning the man believed to have masterminded the assault.

Who is Mohammed Deif?

Much about Deif’s adolescence is unknown or unconfirmed. According to experiences by worldwide media shops, Deif was born within the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza within the early Nineteen Sixties. The European Council on Foreign Relations says Deif was born in Gaza in 1965.

Some reports say Deif was a part of a theater group referred to as The Returners whereas a college scholar in Gaza. Avi Melamed, a Middle East skilled on the Eisenhower Institute, advised the Washington Post this was one thing Deif stored up even after becoming a member of Hamas, generally appearing components within the group’s propaganda movies.

Deif joined Hamas across the time of the primary intifada or Palestinian rebellion in 1987, and was arrested by Israel for his actions in 1989, a Hamas supply advised Reuters. He spent more than a year in an Israeli jail however returned to Gaza within the early Nineteen Nineties, when he started rising shortly within the Hamas ranks.

“He has been active in Hamas for decades. Even before 10/7, he was a wanted man. Now after, he’s even more of a wanted man,” says Raphael Cohen of the RAND Corporation.

“We know he’s masterminded other large scale terrorist attacks,” Cohen says.

Deif has been accused of overseeing a number of suicide bombings, killing dozens of Israelis, from 1995 onward.

He turned the head of Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, in July 2002, after Israel assassinated its former chief, Saleh Shehada. Since then, Deif has turn out to be referred to as the architect of Hamas’ army technique.

The State Department has designated Deif as a terrorist and he has lengthy been on Israel’s most wanted list.

“He has been subject to a number of previous Israeli assassination attempts,” says Hugh Lovatt, senior coverage fellow with the Middle East and North Africa program on the European Council on Foreign Relations, who has researched and written about Deif’s life. “These have left him — according to some rumors — disfigured or partially paralyzed. He has also lost family members in the attacks. He does appear to have borne the brunt of Israeli attacks against him.”

According to some reports, the assassination makes an attempt left Deif blind in a single eye and resulted within the amputation of a few of his limbs.

During the 2014 Israel-Hamas warfare, Deif’s wife and one of his children were killed in an Israeli-targeted airstrike on a home in Gaza that was aimed toward assassinating him.

Deif — who has additionally been nicknamed “the cat with nine lives” — was not within the constructing on the time and evaded the try on his life.

Deif has led a shift in Hamas energy, from political to army

Now the army commander spends all of his time sheltering from Israeli assaults and potential assassination, says Lovatt.

“The fact that he has personally been injured, the fact that he has lost family members in Israeli attacks, the fact that he spends his whole time in bunkers in Gaza, probably does a lot to shape his mentality,” he says. “A bunker mentality, quite literally.”

Lovatt says this helps in understanding the severity of Hamas’ newest assault on Israel — and the path Hamas is taking.

“This was something organized by Hamas’ military leadership, without the political leadership knowing about it until quite recently,” he says. “In some ways, this is a military takeover of Hamas. This is clearly where the center of power is, in the way it hasn’t been for some time.”

And, Lovatt says, Deif is on the heart of this strategic shift.

“The question, though, is what happens to Hamas in the weeks to come,” he says. “If the view within the movement is that this didn’t work, there will be a shift in the power dynamics.”