A month after the assassination of Mohammad Al-Daif, the leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, sources have revealed to Al-Arabiya that a postal worker from Al-Qassam was responsible for his killing. According to a responsible security source in Hamas, investigations that followed Al-Daif's death revealed that the postal worker, who carried messages from Mohammad Shabana, the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Al-Qassam, confessed to the location of a meeting involving Al-Daif and Raef Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade.
According to the sources, the informant, who belongs to a prominent family in Rafah, disclosed the meeting location and was immediately assassinated. He provided information about Shabana as well. The investigation revealed that the informant, who is still under investigation, had previously submitted information about the location of Mohammad Shabana, who had survived three assassination attempts during the conflict.
The investigations uncovered that the informant had provided Israel with complete maps of Rafah city, particularly the Yebna area, detailing the network of tunnels, weapons depots, explosive devices, rockets, and drones. The informant's confessions indicated that he identified numerous locations where high-ranking officials were present due to his movement and his daily mail delivery role to the Rafah Brigade commander and other officials in Rafah and beyond.
Regarding Al-Daif's assassination, the informant admitted during interrogations that Israel showed him a photo and confirmed that he had seen Al-Daif visiting the area where Salama was hiding. He was instructed to inform his handlers as soon as Al-Daif was in the vicinity, and while delivering daily mail, he spotted Mohammad Al-Daif at the location, leading to the Israeli strike that killed him.
In this context, the source revealed that the Internal Security Agency is no longer responsible for protecting personalities and providing them with secure locations, as it had in the past, due to a rise in assassination attempts and repeated breaches of Hamas's infrastructure. Security has now shifted to being self-managed for each official.
The Israeli army had announced earlier this month that Mohammad Al-Daif was killed, stating in a press release that "after an intelligence assessment, we can confirm that Mohammad Al-Daif was eliminated in the airstrike." They added at the time that Al-Daif was "number two in Hamas and was among the key initiators and orchestrators of the attack on October 7."
It is noteworthy that Israel announced that the airstrike conducted on July 13 killed Raef Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade of Al-Qassam. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that the airstrike resulted in over 90 fatalities, although Hamas denied that Al-Daif was among them.
However, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari stated at the time that Salama and Al-Daif "were sitting side by side at the time of the airstrike," adding that Hamas "hides what happened" to the latter. The bomb, suspected to weigh 2,000 pounds, left a giant crater around the house where it's said Al-Daif sought refuge with one of his deputies.
It is significant to note that the Israeli army's confirmation of Mohammad Al-Daif's death came just one day after the announcement of the killing of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, as reported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hamas.
