http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/104427138.cms
Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, also known as 'El Deif'
As Israel watched in horror, over 1,000 Hamas gunmen crossed into its borders on Saturday, unleashing death on civilians and soldiers alike. The attack, the worst since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, has shed the spotlight on Mohammed Deif, the mastermind of the event.
Who is Deif and what role did he play in the terror attack? The Israeli security source believes Deif was directly involved in the planning and operational aspects of the attack, reported Reuters. The chief of Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Deif is said to have taken the crucial decision, along with Hamas leader in Gaza Yehya Sinwar, to launch the attack.
"There are two brains, but there is one mastermind," Reuters quoted an unnamed source as saying, adding that information about the operation was known only to a handful of Hamas leaders.
For someone who is very secretive and rarely speaks - Deif has been picturised only thrice - he spoke to Gazans on Saturday as the attack began. "Enough is enough," he said in the audio message. "Today the rage of Al Aqsa, the rage of our people and nation is exploding. Our mujahedeen (fighters), today is your day to make this criminal understand that his time has ended," Deif said in the recording. He added how Hamas has repeatedly told Israel to stop its crimes against Palestinians and to end the criminal siege.
Deif reportedly handled the mission in such secrecy that even Iran knew little of the major operation. Iran knew Hamas was planning something but was not aware of the timing or details.
'Man with nine lives'
Deif, real name Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al Masri, was born in Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza in the 1960s. Little is known about his early years other than the fact that he went on to study science at the Islamic University of Gaza.
He is said to have organised a major campaign of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords, and has been Israel's most-wanted man since 1995. Deif has survived multiple attempts on his life and is partially paralysed which left him in a wheelchair. It is his ability to escape death that earned him the moniker 'The cat with nine lives'. An Israeli airstrike targeted at Deif in 2014 left his wife and two children dead.
His habit of staying with different sympathisers each night to avoid detection earned him the name "Deif", an Arabic moniker that translates literally to "guest".
Deif became increasingly important within Hamas after being appointed head of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades in 2002. He was the one who insisted on applying lessons from the second intifada in the early 2000s and the brain behind the construction of underground tunnels in Gaza.
Though considered an international terrorist by the United States since 2015, Deif has managed to take on Israel for three decades. "Militancy against Israel is a field with low life expectancy. It’s quite remarkable that he has been able to survive so long. He is a long-lasting stain on Israel's reputation of taking down designated targets," Jacob Eriksson, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the University of York, told France 24.
The attack has now made him a legend. "But with this operation – the most successful in the history of Palestinian resistance – his legacy will live forever. He can fail now, Israel can assassinate him now: his legacy will outlast him," Omri Brinner, an Israel and Middle East analyst at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona told France 24.
And, Israel is exactly doing that. According to The Times of Israel, an IDF airstrike hit the home of relatives of Mohammad Deif, killing his brother, his son, and the brother’s granddaughter.
