Israel says it has confirmed that chief of Hamas’ military wing was killed in a strike in Gaza
LA TimesPalestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on July 13. A strike there that day killed the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, Israel said. The Israeli military said Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza. In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said that “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike.” In its 10-month-old campaign of bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, Israel has killed some 39,480 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,100 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. While the U.S. has been pressing Egyptian and Qatari mediators to get Hamas to compromise, the Americans can’t “pressure the other party, Israel to … refrain from provocative acts,” the Egyptian official said, calling the assassination “reckless.” Qatari Prime and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani expressed frustration in a post on social media, saying: “Can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. had no prior knowledge of the strike in Tehran that killed Haniyeh.