Israel Confirms Death of Muhammad Deif, Who It Says Helped Planned Hamas Attack

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* Confirms ****** of Muhammad Deif, Who It Says Helped Planned ****** *******

The ******** military said on Thursday it had ******* Muhammad Deif, the ****** commander who is believed to have been a planner of the Oct. 7 ******* on *******, in an airstrike last month, which would make him the third Iranian-backed militant leader slain in recent weeks.

The ******** announcement confirming the ****** of Mr. Deif, the leader of ******’s military wing, came as thousands of mourners attended the funerals of another ****** leader and a Hezbollah commander whose assassinations this week have amplified fears of a wider regional war.

Mr. Deif was ******* in an ******** airstrike on a compound in southern Gaza on July 13, according to the ******** military. It said his ****** had been confirmed by an intelligence assessment, but did not provide further details. At least 90 other people were ******* in the strike, according to Gaza’s health officials.

****** has not confirmed or denied Mr. Deif’s ******. The No. 2 ****** leader in Gaza, he would be the group’s most senior military leader slain by ******** forces during the offensive in Gaza that has also ******* more than 38,000 people, according to the territory’s health officials. ******* began its campaign in the enclave after a ******-led ******* on southern ******* on Oct. 7, during which 1,200 people were ******* and about 250 abducted to Gaza.

******** leaders, who have said they will continue fighting in Gaza until they ******** ******’s military and governing capabilities, celebrated the announcement of Mr. Deif’s ******, the latest revelation in a dizzying two days that have shaken the leadership of ****** and Hezbollah, both of which are backed by Iran.

“Deif was responsible for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7 and for many murderous attacks against ******** civilians,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ******* said in a statement. “He was *******’s most-wanted person for years. His elimination establishes a very clear principle — whoever harms us, we will retaliate against them.”

The announcement came as large public ******** processions were held in Iran’s capital, Tehran, for ******’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was ******* on Wednesday by an ********** in Tehran; and near Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, for a Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, who was ******* by an ******** airstrike on Tuesday.

******* has not admitted to ******** Mr. Haniyeh, but ********* officials have assessed that it was responsible for the *******. Iran and ****** blamed *******, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a direct strike on ******* in retaliation, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.

The killings of Mr. Shukr and Mr. Haniyeh have threatened to engulf the Middle East in a wider war and to derail cease-***** talks aimed at stopping the fighting in Gaza and releasing the remaining hostages there.

As the region braced for a possible escalation, some major airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut, and some of the families of the hostages protested outside ******** military headquarters in Tel Aviv, expressing concern that a cease-***** deal was slipping away.

“Prime minister, there’s a deal on the table — a deal that you proposed,” Ella Ben-Ami, whose father, Ohad, ******** held captive by ******, said at a rally in Tel Aviv. “Please, don’t sabotage it. Don’t break this deal. Bring them home.”

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, during a stop in Mongolia on Thursday, did not directly address a reporter’s question about whether Mr. Netanyahu had misrepresented his ******* to negotiate a cease-***** in Gaza, given the escalating tensions in the Middle East caused by the assassinations.

“The path that the region is on is toward more conflict, more *********, more suffering, more insecurity,” Mr. Blinken said. “And it is crucial that we break the cycle, and that starts with a cease-*****. It’s urgent that all parties make the right choices in the days ahead.”

Mr. Haniyeh, who was a top negotiator in the cease-***** talks, was ******* by a ***** planted and remotely detonated in the guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

Hours before Mr. Haniyeh was *******, ******** fighter jets flew over Beirut’s southern suburbs and ******* Mr. Shukr, a senior member of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has been exchanging strikes with ******* for months in what it calls a show of solidarity with ******. ******* has said Mr. Shukr oversaw Hezbollah’s campaign against *******, including a rocket ******* that ******* 12 children and teenagers in the ********-controlled Golan Heights last weekend.

On Thursday, throngs of mourners crowded the streets of Tehran for Mr. Haniyeh’s ******** procession, surrounding a canopied truck adorned with flowers and streamers and bearing his coffin. Many waved the flags of Iran, Palestine and Hezbollah.

Mr. Khamenei and Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wiped away tears during prayers for Mr. Haniyeh,

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showed. The ayatollah also hugged and greeted Mr. Haniyeh’s son, who was in Tehran for the ********.

The commander of Iran’s armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, also vowed to avenge the ********, saying at the ********, “We are currently examining how we and the resistance will avenge the blood.” He added, “Different actions will take place that will make the Zionists regret it.”

At Mr. Shukr’s ******** inside a packed auditorium in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the crowd chanted, “****** to *******,” and shouted, “We are here for you, Nasrallah,” as Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, appeared on a video screen.

In his speech, Mr. Nasrallah said that Hezbollah would retaliate against ******* for the ******** of Mr. Shukr. Hezbollah and its allies were working on “a true response, not a show response, as some are trying to suggest,” he said. His unusually brief remarks appeared to stop short of the full-throated pledge to escalate Hezbollah’s ****** with ******* that some had been expecting.

“We have entered a new phase,” Mr. Nasrallah said. Addressing *******, he said, “You do not realize the red lines you have crossed.”

Hezbollah has dialed back its attacks along *******’s northern border since the ******** of Mr. Shukr, and Mr. Nasrallah said in his speech that he had ordered his fighters to remain calm. But he said that the group would resume operations on Friday and that retaliation for Mr. Shukr’s ****** would come later.

After Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, Mr. Shukr’s coffin was carried to the street outside and met by a sea of mourners, pumping their fists in the air. “No escape, no retreat,” the crowd shouted.

Mr. Netanyahu said in his statement that the ******** military was prepared for an *******.

“******* is in very high readiness for any scenario — both defensively and offensively,” he said. “We will impose a very heavy price for any act of aggression against us from any front.”

Reporting was contributed by Lara Jakes, Qasim Nauman, Ephrat Livni, Hwaida Saad, Johnatan Reiss and Edward Wong.

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