The Israeli military continues to target enemy commanders, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reporting on July 18 that it had eliminated high-ranking figures from Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In a high-profile raid the previous weekend, the IDF had targeted the Hamas terrorist organization’s military commander, Mohammed Deif.
It couldn’t confirm he was dead, but it did confirm killing a high-ranking deputy whose home Mr. Deif was visiting at the time of the attack. Hamas said Mr. Deif was alive and well.
If Mr. Deif has been taken out, it would be a severe blow to Hamas both physically and morally, Elliot Chodoff, a reserve IDF major, said on his podcast. He would be the highest figure in Hamas to be eliminated.
Mr. Deif’s roots in Hamas can be traced to shortly after its 1987 founding, Mr. Chodoff said. He rose quickly through the ranks to become the leader of the Hamas military organization.
He transformed Hamas “from a deadly but somewhat ragtag terrorist organization to the military structure that we are now dismantling in Gaza of brigades, battalions, armaments factories, warehouses and the like.”
Mr. Chodoff said Mr. Deif was one of the designers of the tunnel system and Hamas’s strategy. The man was responsible for much of the planning of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
He had survived at least seven attempts by Israel to eliminate him and, as such, had acquired an aura of immortality.
Mr. Chodoff said that if Mr. Deif has been taken out, it would be “symbolic” in the same way that Osama Bin Laden’s killing in 2011 was symbolic for Americans.
And in some ways, it would be of even greater significance, he said. The architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack was no longer the central commander of Al Qaeda by that time.
Mr. Deif, though, has remained “a key player, a key organizer, a key planner” until the present, Mr. Chodoff said.
He would be difficult for Hamas to replace, mainly because his deputy, Marwan Issa, his most logical replacement, was killed a few months ago. That means Hamas will have to dig lower in its organizational chart to replace Mr. Deif and won’t find someone of the same caliber.
Mr. Chodoff said targeting Mr. Deif was not an assassination, as he was not a political figure.
“He was a military target and a perfectly legitimate one to be taken out, to be eliminated,” he said.
Mr. Deif was tracked to one of the three homes of the commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade, Rafa'a Salameh. Israel had tracked Hamas leaders to the home a few weeks previously, Mr. Chodoff said.
However, the IDF decided to wait and see whether Mr. Deif showed up because of his friendship with Mr. Salameh.
He did. After confirming as well as they could that no Israeli hostages were present, the IDF attacked from the air, “essentially pulverizing the house,” Mr. Chodoff said.
The bodyguards for both men were confirmed killed, as were other terrorists in the area, he said.
The IDF on July 18 said it had eliminated several named enemy figures, some high-ranking.
A platoon commander, Muhammed Abu Jattab, who had committed numerous sniper attacks against the IDF, including killing Sgt. First Class Tal Lahat in Gaza City on July 9, was one of 20 Hamas terrorists hit by the Israeli Air Force. Another of the 20, Ismael Shakshak, had participated in the Oct. 7 attack.
A Hamas operative in Lebanon, Mohammed Jabarah, was killed in an air attack in the Bekaa region of Lebanon. He had coordinated missile launches and terror attacks with another group, Jamaa Islamiya, in northern Israel, the IDF said on July 18.
The IDF also said on July 18 that it had eliminated the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Naval Forces in Gaza City, Anas Murad, and another Islamic Jihad terrorist, Ahmad Almasri, who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre.
There were some reports that cease-fire negotiations, which resumed last week as an Israeli delegation traveled to Cairo, had stalled but that the talks were still in process.
An aggravating factor appeared to be a visit by Israel’s ultra-nationalist security minister to the Al Aqsa Mosque, a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. Its status is sensitive.
Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had gone up to the mosque, which stands on the Temple Mount atop the ruins of Israel’s ancient Second Temple, including its Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, to pray for the return of the 120 living or dead Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.
The site is controlled by the Waqf, a Muslim religious authority based in Jordan, in an agreement with Israel. Jews are allowed to visit the Temple Mount, where Al Aqsa stands, but not to pray there, said Rabbi Mark Zimmerman of Atlanta.
Many ultra-Orthodox, in fact, discourage visiting the Temple Mount as Jews doing so might inadvertently step on the Holy of Holies, believed to be buried there, a forbidden act, he said.
There have been occasional high-profile, provocative visits to the Temple Mount by some Israeli politicians, such as Mr. Ben Gvir and late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to underscore that the mountain is Judaism’s holiest site, Mr. Zimmerman said.
“It’s not helpful” to the peace process, Mr. Zimmerman said.
Mr. Sharon’s controversial visit there in early 2001, shortly after he became prime minister, was a trigger of the second Palestinian Intifada against Israel. The uprising notably introduced suicide bombing as a regular tactic.
Mr. Sharon’s camp said Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat had in fact planned the intifada for months. He had rejected in late 2000 a deal with U.S. President Bill Clinton and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that would have established an independent Palestinian state after seven years of negotiation following the Oslo Accords.
