Any remaining doubt surrounding the rumored death of Hamas military commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (Abu Khaled), otherwise known as Mohammed Deif, dissipated on Wednesday when he was confirmed to still be alive. Deif, who was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1965, was drawn to religion from an early age and became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood before eventually joining Hamas. In May 1989, he was convicted and sentenced by Israel to 16 months in prison for his involvement in the terrorist group's military activities. With the establishment of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Deif became further involved in Hamas' military operations as the prot g of Yahya Ayyash, dubbed "the Engineer" by Israel, until the latter was assassinated in 1996. It was Deif who replaced Imad Akel, after his death, as commander of Hamas' military wing in Gaza. Throughout the years, as Israel succeeded in eliminating Hamas' military leaders, primarily in the West Bank, Deif rose to become the pre-eminent organizational and professional authority within the group's military hierarchy. Following the assassination of Salah Shehadeh in July 2002 in an Israeli airstrike that also killed 14 of his relatives, Deif was officially appointed leader of Hamas' military wing in the West Bank and Gaza. Deif has survived five assassination attempts, and the legends of his audacity and talent for evading Israel's wrath have afforded him an aura of mystique, similar to that of Yasser Arafat in the past. The most recent attempt on his life came on August 21, 2014, toward the end of Operation Protective Edge. His death would have been the pinnacle of Israel's military campaign and would have delivered a severe morale blow to Hamas. But Deif, who had already been seriously wounded in previous assassination attempts, managed -- it appears -- to escape this time as well; although he was likely wounded. In every one of Israel's wars in Gaza (operations Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense and Protective Edge), Deif broadcast a victory speech to the people in which the main message was patience in the face of the crimes committed by the occupation (referring to Israel), including the killing of women and children, for instance his wife and two children who were killed in the most recent attempt on his life. The last of these victory speech recordings was released on July 29, 2014, following the infiltration attack at the Nahal Oz outpost, in which five IDF soldiers were killed. Deif warned Israel of another Holocaust and boasted of the rousing victory achieved by Hamas' fighters. Deif is a unifying figure within Hamas. His vast organizational experience in soldier abductions and suicide terrorist attacks, which have left hundreds of Israelis dead since 1995, make him a venerated figure among the Palestinian people and within the organization. Among his operational designs are home-made mortars with independent trigger mechanisms; underground infiltration and attack tunnels with which to kill and kidnap Israeli civilians and soldiers to be used as bargaining chips; a naval and airborne force; and forging ties with other Palestinian organizations as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Islamic State in Sinai. Because of Deif, Hamas enjoys complete coordination with the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad. The significance of such tight coordination between the various organizations includes closer ties with Iran, which provides essential assistance for the purpose of enhancing infrastructure and strength. This approach by Deif is not new. In fact, it began in the 1990s. Questions over the prudence of such an approach, however, often spark rivalries and divisions within Hamas. The "moderate" stream in Hamas wants to move closer to Saudi Arabia and the money and support it can provide, but as long as Deif maintains his grip on the military wing it will neither alter its current policies or stop evolving into a standardized army with him as its commander. Israel's failure to eliminate Deif is depicted on Hamas websites and Facebook pages as divine intervention. The man is a symbol of the resistance, and the symbol is neither dead nor defeated by the Jews. For Hamas, his survival highlights Israeli helplessness and the rout it suffered in Gaza. "We will win or die a holy death" -- this was and continues to be Hamas' battle cry and is most strongly identified with Deif, Hamas' military commander in every confrontation with Israel over the past 13 years, who is willing to keep fighting until the final campaign for the liberation of Palestine. Shaul Bartal is a scholar in the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University.
Deif: The undying symbol of Hamas
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.
