AS THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (IDF) step up their assault on the Gaza Strip in the wake of the deadliest-ever Palestinian militant assault on Israel, the murky figure at the heart of Hamas’ military wing may be getting ready to make his final stand.
Little is known for certain about Mohammed Deif. That’s by design for Hamas’ Al-Qassam Military Brigades supreme commander, whose nom de guerre means “guest” in an apparent reference to his frequently shifting location. Deif’s elusiveness has allowed him to escape numerous Israeli attempts on his life. But having survived so long, a massive IDF incursion could bring a dramatic end to a bloody game of cat-and-mouse that’s dragged on for more than three decades.
“I don’t think that a man with his legacy, name and position, and immersed in the culture of steadfastness and martyrdom thinks of leaving his land and battlefield,” Khaled Hroub, a professor at Northwestern University in.
