Secrets of Muhammad al-Daif's final months: He slept in the streets of Rafah... and moved without guards

On the thirteenth of July 2024, for approximately 3 minutes, Israeli warplanes continuously dropped tons of explosives on an open area containing a small building in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, which suggested from the first moment that the target was important.

Only hours later, Israel confirmed that the target was the commander-in-chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, Muhammad al-Daif, at a time when Hamas was strongly denying it, on the grounds that the targeted location was a shelter for displaced people from various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Destruction at a site targeted by Israel in Mawasi near Khan Yunis on July 13, 2024, as part of an operation to assassinate Al-Qassam leaders Muhammad al-Daif and Rafa' Salama (AFP)

But about 6 months later, Al-Qassam admitted on January 30, 2025, to the assassination of al-Daif along with Khan Yunis Brigade commander Rafa' Salama and other leaders including Marwan Issa, al-Daif's deputy.

"They thought he was in Gaza City"

Three Hamas sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the initial denial of al-Daif's assassination stemmed from prior information among many movement leaders who believed he was in Gaza City, not in the southern Strip, while certain leaders had indications he was in the south without knowing his exact location.

It appears that some Hamas leaders who publicly denied it expected he might be in one of the tunnels, while one source said that "al-Daif did not resort to tunnels since the beginning of the war, and perhaps he was forced to do so once in one instance."

The location where al-Daif was assassinated originally belonged to Rafa' Salama, the Khan Yunis Brigade commander who was killed alongside him, along with many of Salama's sons and security personnel affiliated with Al-Qassam.

Photo published by Al-Qassam Brigades of Muhammad al-Daif with his obituary (Telegram)

However, al-Daif's final months before his assassination, and how he moved around Gaza beforehand, remained shrouded in mystery, and on the occasion of two years since his death, Asharq Al-Awsat asked Hamas sources for information on how Israel identified him, reached him, and killed him.

Two Hamas sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Al-Qassam Brigades commander was actually in Gaza City at the start of the October 7, 2023 attack, and remained in the northern city until days before Israel's full control of the Netzarim Axis, especially the coastal Rashid Street, which remained open for more than two weeks longer than its eastern section, Salah al-Din Street, was occupied.

"Movement without guards... and interrupted communication"

The two sources residing in Gaza, who had access to information provided by al-Daif's close associates, confirmed that he left Gaza City alone without his personal guards and headed south to Rafah at the beginning of November 2023.

Another informed Hamas source said that some Al-Qassam Brigades leaders, including Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who later took command of Al-Qassam before Israel assassinated him last May, "advised al-Daif before leaving Gaza City to stay there, assuring him of their ability to provide security protection despite the extensive security pursuit." The source added that al-Daif "preferred to continue field work, manage battles, and monitor any political developments related to the negotiation file, which had not yet started."

From the right, Al-Qassam Brigades leaders assassinated by Israel in separate attacks: Muhammad Odeh, Rafa' Salama, Abu Ubayda, and Muhammad al-Daif (photo published by the Israeli army)

The same source reveals that "the interruption of communication in the usual manner led to losing contact with al-Daif for more than 4 days, after he did not find the mediator who was supposed to wait for him to take him to one of the locations; this forced him to head deeper south towards Rafah."

Over approximately four days, "al-Daif could not find any thread leading him to a safe Al-Qassam site, and due to the absence of a recent photo with Israeli intelligence, and the lack of recognition of his image among Palestinians, al-Daif managed to sleep in areas of Rafah's streets, and once in one of its mosques without anyone noticing him," according to the source.

Rafah city, in the final months of 2023, was the site of displacement for more than 1.3 million Palestinian refugees, the largest overcrowding during the war.

Palestinians waiting to cross into Egypt at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on November 1, 2023 (EPA)

Another Hamas source continued the account of how communication with al-Daif was restored, saying: "One of the field activists in Al-Qassam unexpectedly recognized al-Daif and moved him to a safe place, then transferred him to Khan Yunis, and from there he was moved via another mediator to the location where Rafa' Salama was, before the two moved together to several places, eventually settling in the location where they were assassinated."

Unknown image of the Qassam commander

The source says that although "al-Daif in recent years had become more prominent among Al-Qassam leaders and through his visits to military and other sites, Israeli intelligence could not obtain any information or form a true picture of him, and all they knew was that he was injured and at least had an amputated foot, or suffered from a severe injury to one of his feet or hands."

The source explains that "for periods when al-Daif was seriously injured in two incidents, there were attempts to get him out of the Gaza Strip for treatment under a false identity; but those efforts failed, and he insisted on staying in Gaza." However, another source said: "It seems that at a certain point, al-Daif left for a short period for treatment, then returned to Gaza," which was not confirmed by the other source or other sources.

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According to three Hamas sources, Israel could not determine al-Daif's health condition or even know his exact image until after it found "video clips and photos from occasions of Al-Qassam leaders, in which the brigade commander participated, and which were found inside sites deep in the Strip after the incursion of Israeli forces."

The sources explained that these documents were transferred to Israeli intelligence, which analyzed them, recruited hundreds of informants to try to reach him and distributed his photo to them, along with analyzing them through artificial intelligence, and feeding intelligence tools such as drones with information including his voice from the last footage of him shortly before the war during preparations for the October 7 attack, which "caused him to be reached and assassinated," according to those sources' estimates.