Who is Mohammed Deif — the military leader of Hamas?

Hamas’s complex attack on Israel that involved air, sea and land incursion has put spotlight on Mohammed Deif, a handicapped Palestinian fighter, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in Palestine's Gaza.

Since 2002, Deif has led the Qassam Brigades, the military offshoot of Hamas. The elusive fighter has survived at least seven Israeli assassination attempts in which his wife and two kids including an infant son were killed. He also lost an eye, arm and leg in those assassination attempts.

Just like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’s handicapped spiritual leader, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2004, the 57-year-old Deif has run the Qassam brigades from a wheelchair in the last two decades.

“He was very kind,” said Ghazi Hamad, one of Hamas’s leading figures, referring to Deif, whose name means a guest in Arabic alluding to his nomadic lifestyle as he constantly changes locations to avoid getting killed by the Israelis.

Hamad met and befriended Deif in the late 1980s when the First Intifada —the Palestinian uprising— broke out. In the prison, Deif “would make little cartoons to make us laugh,” recalled Hamad. But Deif was fixated on a purpose. “From the beginning of his life in Hamas, he was focused on the military track,” Hamad told the Financial Times.

After Hamas’s lightning multi-pronged attack on Israel, which has not faced such an offensive since the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, Deif was clear about his intentions.

“In light of the continuing crimes against our people, in light of the orgy of occupation and its denial of international laws and resolutions, and in light of American and Western support, we’ve decided to put an end to all this, so that the enemy understands that he can no longer revel without being held to account,” announced the Qassam Brigades leader.

What does he want?

Like other members of Hamas, Deif has long advocated attacking Israel.

In the Qassam Brigades-led offensive, Palestinian groups managed to capture and detain dozens of Israeli military officials who reportedly included a major general rank officer, an unprecedented event.

Unlike many Palestinian leading figures, Deif is not interested in internal Palestinian leadership struggles between different factions and leaders, focusing instead steadfastly on the Israeli front, according to experts.

In late 2010, Deif wrote an article in which he outlined the group’s aim according to his own vision of the conflict, saying that “Palestine will remain ours including Al Quds (Jerusalem), Al Aqsa (mosque), its towns and villages from the (Mediterranean) Sea to the (Jordan) River, from its North to its South. You (Israel) have no right to even an inch of it.”

One of the recent triggers of Hamas’s offensive against Israel was the Israeli settlers' violence in the Al Aqsa compound, the third holiest site for the world’s Muslims.

Years of reckoning

Many details of Deif’s life remain shrouded in mystery with many unknowns including who his parents were and what kind of a childhood he had. A testimony to his secretive nature is the fact that there's no clear picture of Deif available. Israeli intelligence believes that his real name was Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.

According to Israeli intelligence, which is facing criticism for failing to predict Hamas’s attack yesterday, Deif’s relatives were part of the Fedayeen Palestinian fighters, who in the 1950s launched attacks on illegal Israeli posts.

Like many Palestinian leaders, who joined the nation’s liberation movements during their university period, Deif’s relationship with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired movement, began at the Islamic University of Gaza.

In the early 1990s, Deif like many Palestinians including founders of Hamas was angry about the Oslo Accords signed by Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), that ceded many Palestinian lands to Israel.

Under the influence of Yahya Ayyash and Adnan al-Ghoul, who were two of Hamas’s top military strategists prior to their assassinations by Israel, Deif became part of the Qassam Brigades, which was founded shortly after the Oslo Accords.

Deif was involved in many plots which involved killing of Israeli soldiers and suicide attacks deep inside Israel. Deif was also part of a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005.