Deif family killings
| The killing of the wife, daughter, and infant son of Mohammed Deif | |
|---|---|
| Location |  Gaza Strip, Palestine (The family home of Mohammed Deif) |
| Date | August 2014 |
| Target | Mohammed Deif |
Attack type | English: Targeted killing Hebrew: סיכול ממוקד, romanized: sikul memukad, lit. 'focused foiling'.[1][2] |
| Deaths | 3+ |
| Victims | The son, daughter, and wife of Mohammed Deif, and other members of the household. |
| Perpetrators |  Israel Defense Forces |
| Motive | "an image of victory"[3] |
| Accused | Accused of being informants: Mahmoud Ishtiwi[a][4] |
The Deif family massacre was one of many during the 2014 Gaza War and one of the only cases where the target is known. It is now also known that the strike did not hit the target, Mohammed Deif, the father of the family. In 2014, this strategy was allegedly only used on particularly high ranking members of so called "terrorist" organisations, but on the evening of 7 October 2023 the "Where's Daddy" strategy was expanded.
Air strike
Israel attempted to assassinate the chief commander of Hamas' military wing, Mohammad Deif, in an airstrike on his house in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, killing his wife and two children.[5][6] The strike on the family home killed a 7-month-old baby boy (Mohammed Deif's son, referred to at the funeral as "Ali Deif"), his 3-year-old sister, his 27 year old mother (Widad Asfoura, Mohammed Deif's second wife),[7] [8] and other members of the household. But the strike did not kill the intended target, Mohammed Deif. Israeli intelligence concluded in April 2015 that Deif had survived the assassination attempt, the fifth Israeli attempt to assassinate him.[9]
Funeral
Several thousand people attended the funeral in Gaza, angrily demanding revenge against Israel and firing shots into the air. The bodies of Widad and Ali were taken from the wife’s family home to a mosque in Jabaliya refugee camp for prayers, then laid to rest in the sand of a cemetery.[7]
Criticism of the attempted assassination
In addition to the rage in Gaza, some within Israel also criticised the strike. For example, Gideon Levy asked "What Would Israel Do in Hamas' Shoes?" in his opinion piece in Haaretz, asking how Israel would react if Hamas killed the wife and children of one of Israel's leaders.[3] Levy also pointed out that even if the assassination had been successful, based on past successful strikes on Ahmad Yassin and others, Deif would have been replaced and not by someone more moderate.[3]
Summary executions
Other alleged informants
The killing of suspected informants may not have stopped aged the end in the 2014 war. Some sources say that the first thing Mahmoud Ishtiwi was accused of, when he was arrested in January 2015, was giving Israel the location of Deif’s family residence, leading to this strike.[4] However, Ishtiwi was also accused of multiple other transgressions, including the embezzlement of 6 million USD from the Qassam Brigades weapons funds.[10]
Expansion of the strategy of targeting family homes
In 2014, the strategy of bombing family homes was allegedly only used on particularly high ranking members of so called "terrorist" organisations. But on the evening of 7 October 2023 the "Where's Daddy" strategy was expanded to include even the lowest ranking militants, 37,000 men were listed for execution, and 15 or more civilians were allocated as allowable collateral damage for each executed target.[11][12][13]
See also
- 7 October attacks (2023)
- Mohammed Deif
- Mahmoud Eshtewi
- Capital punishment in the Gaza Strip
- Extrajudicial killings in the Gaza Strip
Notes
- ^ Also spelled Mahmoud Eshtewi.
- ^ "Hamas" could refer to either the civilian government of the Gaza Strip from 2006 to 2024, or the Qassam Brigades, or both.
References
- ^ "בג"ץ 769/02" (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Otto, Roland (2011). Targeted Killings and International Law. ISBN 9783642248580.
- ^ a b c Levy, Gideon (2014). "What Would Israel Do in Hamas' Shoes?". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
- ^ a b Levi, Elior (7 February 2016). "Hamas executes member who may have betrayed Deif's location". Ynetnews. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
- ^ "Gaza war rages on, Hamas says Israel tried to kill its military chief". Reuters. 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Body of Deif's daughter, 3, pulled from Gaza rubble". The Daily Star Newspaper – Lebanon. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ a b "Gaza: Thousand mourn death of Hamas chief's wife, baby son". Firstpost. 20 August 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
- ^ "Terror chief Deif's mother-in-law offers him her other daughters". Times of Israel. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
"Should Deif request the hand of any of my other daughters, I will happily consent and even if she, too, is martyred I will consent to the third. It is an honor to have Deif a husband to any of my daughters and be a father to their children." - Zeian Asfura, (mother of Widad Deif)
- ^ 'Hamas's chief of staff alive and active, Israel confirms,' The Times of Israel 29 April 2015.
- ^ the source is in the Arabic Wikipedia article on Ishtiwi
- ^ Iraqi, Amjad (3 April 2024). "'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
- ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (5 April 2024). "Analysis | Israel offers a glimpse into the terrifying world of military AI". Washington Post. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
- ^ Samuel, Sigal (8 May 2024). "Some say AI will make war more humane. Israel's war in Gaza shows the opposite". Vox. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
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