Al Jazeera Airs Archival Footage of Mohammed Deif at Hamas Command Meetings

Al Jazeera disclosed archival footage of Mohammed Deif and senior members of Hamas’s military wing on Friday evening, October 30. The recordings show Deif inside tunnels and taking part in command meetings where senior Hamas figures discuss their fighting plan. The broadcaster presented the material in its investigative program Ma Khafi A’zam. Alongside the footage, the broadcaster released documents that it claims describe preparations for the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. They include an operational order purportedly signed by Deif on October 5, 2023, specifying 06:30 as the time for the attack to begin. That account describes what the broadcaster presented; it does not establish the authenticity of the purported order. Deif commanded Hamas’s military wing. In an August 1, 2024 announcement, the IDF and Israel Security Agency said an intelligence assessment had confirmed he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Khan Yunis area on July 13, 2024. The official announcement said Deif initiated, planned and carried out the October 7 massacre, in which 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and 251 hostages were abducted into Gaza. It also identified the targeted compound as containing Deif and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, whose death had already been confirmed.