Mohammed Deif: Hamas Leader Who Escaped 7 Assassination Attempts - The Cat With Nine Lives

The Hamas militant group on Saturday launched an unprecedented multifront attack by air, land and sea against Israel.

Militants from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, fired more than 3,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Saturday morning, while Hamas fighters entered southern Israel by land, sea and air, using paragliders and even capturing several Israeli soldiers near the border, the Israeli military said.

In Israel, the toll from the conflict is said to be over 350 casualties, including soldiers, with over 1,900 individuals sustaining injuries. This marks the deadliest day for the country in at least five decades. On the other side of the Gaza Strip, there have been close to 300 reported fatalities and approximately 1,500 individuals wounded due to Israel's counterattack, as reported by the media on Sunday.

The attack launched by the Hamas has been called as 'Al-Aqsa Storm' by Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas's military wing.

Deif asked the terrorists who infiltrated the settlements surrounding Gaza, "Carry out your attacks on the settlements with all the means and tools at your disposal." He added, "Today everyone who has a rifle should take it out. It's their time, and each of you should go out with your truck, vehicle or ax. Today, a new history has opened, a brighter and more honorable history."

Mohammed Deif has garnered global attention after carrying out a surprise attack on Israel.

Who is Mohammed Deif?
Not much is known about his early life except that he was born in Gaza's Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1965, when the territory was occupied by Egypt. His original name is Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri. He earned Deif name due to his nomadic lifestyle and evading Israreli airstrikes. Deif, in Arabic, means "the guest."

He is a protege of Yehya Ayyash, a renowned bomb-maker known as "the engineer", who was reportedly behind some of the deadliest bus bombings in Israel in the 1990s. He was assassinated by Israel in 1996.

Thereafter, Deif was then accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis as a a revenge which helped him to rise to prominence. In 2002, he became the leader of Hamas' military wing.

Deif has been credited for conceptualizing Hamas's distinctive weaponry, such as the Qassam rocket, and the intricate network of tunnels beneath Gaza. These tunnels serve as Deif's presumed primary location, allowing him to evade the Israeli military while overseeing Hamas operations, operating discreetly out of sight.

7 Assassination Attempts
Since 2000, he has survived seven Israeli assassination attempts. Although he had escaped every time, he lost an eye and limbs.

'Cat With Nine Lives'
"People thought he would never function again as a leader, as a military planner," BBC quoted a retired Israeli general as saying. "But he recovered as well as he could. If you lose an eye, you lose an eye."

His numerous unsuccessful assassination attempts solidified his reputation for exceptional evasion skills, leading his adversaries to dub him "the cat with nine lives."

Secret Behind His Succesful Escapes
Security experts suggest that his ability to evade Israel's military can, in part, be attributed to his deliberate avoidance of modern communication technology.

"If you're not on phones, if you're not on computers, there are ways to make it difficult for modern intelligence services to have a sense of where you are," Mr Levitt said.

According to the former Israeli intelligence chief, several factors such as the depth of Hamas's tunnels, outdated intelligence, concerns about collateral damage, and potential munitions malfunctions are additional reasons why certain assassination attempts may not have succeeded.

It has to be noted that Israel's attack in 2014 killed his wife Widad, and their infant son. It was believed that he was dead but he was not there in the building at that time.