Hamas courier helped Israel with Deif assassination – report

Deif was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis while the met with Rafa’a Salameh, head of the Khan Younis Brigade. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A Hamas courier informed Israeli security forces of the location of top Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and assisted with the assassination, as reported by Saudi media outlet Al Arabiya.

Mohammed Deif was the number three Hamas leader after the now-dead Ismail Haniyeh and the current head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and with these two, planned the October 7th massacre.

Citing a “responsible security source in Hamas,” the Saudi news outlet reported that the Hamas operative was a courier tasked with passing on communications from Hamas’s Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana to other Hamas leaders.

Hamas communicated through the low-tech courier system to avoid having digital messages picked up by Israeli security.

The informant and courier who assisted with Deif’s assassination is being interrogated by Hamas and revealed details of the operation.

An Israeli handler showed the informant a photo of Deif and said to tell him if he ever spotted the Hamas leader.

The courier notified the Israeli handler of Deif’s whereabouts on July 13th, and a strike followed based on this information.

The informant also confessed to passing on information to Israel that led to three assassination attempts against Mohammed Shabana and described to Israeli security the location of tunnels and weapons caches.

Deif was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis while the met with Rafa’a Salameh, head of the Khan Younis Brigade.

Although Salameh was confirmed as dead the following day, Israel did not verify Deif was killed until August 1st, and Hamas insists Deif is not dead.

Al Arabiya also reported that the General Security Service was no longer protecting Hamas’s top military officials because much of it had been disabled.

Although Israel has not admitted responsibility for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, sources have said that the Mossad recruited operatives within IRGC to plant a bomb in the lodgings months before Haniyeh stayed there, and the operatives detonated the explosives remotely.

Esmail Qaani, the IRGC Quds force commander, is investigating and identifying people to be fired, jailed, or executed for the breach.

The official said, “The breach has humiliated everyone.

“The Supreme Leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days; he wants answers,” he added.

The official concluded, “For him, addressing the security breach is now more important than seeking revenge.”