- Mohammed Deif was born in 1965 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. His family came from al-Qubeiba, near Ramleh in Mandatory Palestine, and was displaced during the 1948 Palestine war. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1988. Deif had an interest in the arts and founded a theater group called “The Returners” during his university years.
- Deif joined Hamas in 1987, shortly after its founding, during the First Intifada against the Israeli occupation. Israeli authorities arrested him in 1989, but he was released in 1991 under a prisoner exchange after serving a 16-month sentence. He helped establish Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. In 2002, he took command of the brigade after Salah Shehade was assassinated. Deif transformed the brigades into organized military units, making them a more effective force.
- Mohammed Deif plotted several devastating suicide bombings in the 1990s and early 2000s, including the Jaffa Road bus bombing in 1996. He also masterminded the kidnappings and murders of several Israeli soldiers. He developed and implemented Hamas’ strategy of combining rocket attacks on Israel with tunnel warfare.
- He has escaped seven Israeli assassination attempts since 2001, earning him the nickname “the cat that killed nine people.” The Israeli military has carried out airstrikes on his car, homes he visits, and family homes. His survival, however, has come at a great personal cost. In 2014, Israeli airstrikes killed his wife, infant son, and 3-year-old daughter. Deif himself suffered serious injuries as a result of these killings, including the loss of an eye and a limb.
- Israel has pursued Mohammed Deif since 1995 for his role in the killing of soldiers and civilians, and has put him on its ‘Most Wanted’ list. The US and the EU have designated Deif as a terrorist, and added him to their terrorism lists in 2015 and 2023 respectively. Deif plotted and executed the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 2023 October 7. He claimed the attack was a response to Israel’s action on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the killing of Palestinians. In May 2024, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant for Deif and other leaders for their actions during the attack.
