Hamas masterminds top Israel’s ‘dead man walking’ hit list
Israel is on a ruthless hunt to track down Hamas leaders, including one brutally nicknamed “face of evil” who has spent years operating in the shadows.
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They call one the “face of evil”. Another is known as “the cat with nine lives”. But together, two high-ranking Hamas operatives are being called something else by the Israeli Defense Forces: dead men walking.
Israel has targeted two key figures who they say were the masterminds behind the October 7 attacks: military strategist Mohammed Deif and political leader Yahya Sinwar.
Security sources believe the two men are embedded in a network of tunnels built to resist Israeli bombardment.
But the pair have spent years operating in the shadows.
Sinwar was a founding member of Hamas in 1987 during the first Palestinian intifada or uprising, and rose through the ranks as a fierce advocate of armed struggle.
Now 61, he was elected Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017 after Ismail Haniyeh became the movement’s supreme leader.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht called Sinwar the “face of evil”.
A graduate of the Islamic University in Gaza, Sinwar learnt Hebrew during 23 years in Israeli jails.
He was serving four life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers, but in 2011 he became the most senior of 1100 Palestinians released in exchange for French-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza and added to the United States’ list of most wanted “international terrorists” in 2015.
Much less is known about Deif, who has been accused of organising suicide attacks, kidnappings and other raids.
There is only one known full-face photo of the commander of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, and it is at least 20 years old. The others show him either in a mask or standing in the shadows to avoid identification.
An audio message from Deif was transmitted by Hamas media on the morning of the attacks dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“The rage of our people and our nation is exploding,” he said.
Deif was born Mohammed Diab al-Masri in 1965, in the same refugee camp as Sinwar.
His assumed name means “Guest” in Arabic and he reportedly never spends more than one night in the same place. Enemies have dubbed him the “cat with nine lives” as he has survived at least six attempts to kill him.
Deif’s wife and at least one child were killed in an Israeli air strike during the 2014 Gaza war. Deif has reportedly lost one eye and been left disabled by the attempts on his life but it has not weakened his influence.
He has been involved with Hamas since the 1980s and was arrested at the start of the second intifada but escaped, or was released, from a Palestinian Authority prison in 2000. He became head of the Hamas military wing in 2002 and has been Israel’s public enemy number one, ever since.
Experts say eliminating Sinwar and Deif would severely weaken but not crush Hamas, which is Israel’s declared aim.
“Sinwar and Deif are clearly first priority leadership, the loss of which would damage Hamas, but one presumes that the group has contingencies about their loss,” H.A. Hellyer, an international security specialist at the Royal United Services Institute in London said.
Israel has already claimed the deaths of a number of key Palestinian terrorists, including the military head of the group the Popular Resistance Committees, and a woman known as “the first lady of Hamas”.
Jamila al-Shanti, who was the widow of Hamas’s co-founder but also the first woman elected to the group’s political wing, was reportedly killed during a dawn air strike in Gaza.
Two other key Hamas figures were killed this week, the Israeli Defense Forces said.
Muhammad Awdallah was the commander of an antitank missile system in Gaza, while Akram Hijazi was a naval forces terrorist and arms dealer
Also killed was Ayman Nofal, a member of the terrorist group’s General Military Council and the former Head of Military.
“Nofal directed many attacks against Israeli civilians and besides being one of the most dominant figures in the terrorist organisation, he was involved in the planning of the abduction of Gilad Shalit,” The Israeli Defence Force said. Mr Shalit, an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas in 2006 and released in a prison swap in 2011.
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