Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
An absolute scandal: Hamas is officially declaring that its military chief, Mohammed el-Deif, has been killed in Gaza during the war. An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 at the al-Mawasi safe zone in southern Gaza killed el-Deif, the military mastermind of October 7, along with other senior Hamas leadership and dozens of civilians. This is an admission by Hamas that the head of its military wing, among scores of militants, set up headquarters in displacement zones with hundreds of thousands of civilians, effectively using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The reason why Hamas didn't admit he was assassinated back then is realizing the scope of the scandal of having its chief military officer set up command among displacement tents in a humanitarian zone and how cowardly such behavior would appear to the entire world. Hamas gave the Israeli military carte blanche to attack targets everywhere in Gaza and inflict damage upon civilians through its criminal and shameful behavior that violates IHL, the rules of warfare, and basic human decency.
