Israel said it had killed Deif in an air attack in July, but Hamas did not confirm his death until Thursday.

Hamas says its top military commander Mohammed Deif has been killed.

The Israeli military had said it killed Deif in an air attack in July, but the Palestinian group had not confirmed his death until Thursday.

The spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said his death was “befitting”.

“This is befitting of our leader Mohammed Deif, who exhausted the enemy for more than 30 years,” Abu Obeida said.

“How, by God, could Mohammed Deif be mentioned in history without the title ‘martyr’ and without the medal of martyrdom?” Abu Obeida asked.

Deif was one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s and led the force for more than 20 years. He is reported to have planned attacks leading to the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Deif was also believed to have developed the group’s network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, signalling the Hamas-led attacks that day on southern Israel were a response to Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided issued an arrest warrant for Deif “for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes”.

The ICC also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged “crimes against humanity and war crimes” over Israel’s conduct of its war in Gaza.

Abu Obeida also said deputy military commander Marwan Issa was also killed and announced the deaths of a number of other commanders, including Ghazi Abu Tamaa, the commander of weapons and combat services; Raed Thabet, commander of manpower and head of the supplies unit; and Rafei Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade.

Israel said it killed Issa in March. At the time, senior Hamas officials had told Al Jazeera that the group’s political bureau had not received evidence of Issa’s death.