Mohammed Deif: Al-Qassam Brigades Leader, Phantom who Survived Multiple Close Callshttps://english.aawsat.com/features/5039971-mohammed-deif-al-qassam-brigades-leader-phantom-who-survived-multiple-close-calls
Mohammed Deif: Al-Qassam Brigades Leader, Phantom who Survived Multiple Close Calls
A presumed image of Mohammed Deif released by Israel last year
Before the current war in Gaza, Mohammed Deif, leader of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was known only to his family and a few within Hamas.
His true appearance remained a mystery until Israel released his image late last year, marking it as the fourth depiction. Previous images ranged from a young man to a masked figure and a silhouette.
The latest shows him calmly alongside someone with gray hair, a light beard, and one eye.
Deif maintained a high level of secrecy in all his movements. Even when his mother passed away in January 2011, it was unclear if he attended her funeral.
There were rumors he did, unrecognized, while others claimed he never attended due to security concerns. Some even suggested he disguised himself as an elderly man to bid his mother farewell before disappearing.
Deif appears not to use modern technology and is not fond of making public appearances. Rarely does he release voice messages, such as when he announced the start of new battles with Israel, including the Oct.7 Al-Aqsa Flood attacks.
Even during the current war, Israel’s pursuit of Deif in every corner of Gaza has proven elusive until now, with the targeting in Khan Younis marking the first revealed attempt after over nine months of conflict.
In fact, Israel has sought Deif since the mid-1990s. Shimon Peres, then Prime Minister in 1996, requested Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to arrest him, only for Arafat to express surprise at the name, seemingly unaware of him.
Peres later admitted discovering Arafat protected, hid, and lied about him.
Profile Overview
Real Name: Mohammad Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Deif. Born in 1965 to a Palestinian refugee family from Al-Qubeiba, settled in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza.
Deif grew up in poverty, briefly leaving school to help support his family by working with his father in textiles and later starting a small poultry farm. He also worked as a driver before becoming a target of Israeli pursuit.
Known for his friendly demeanor and interest in theater, Deif joined Hamas in late 1987 through mosque connections. He completed his studies at the Islamic University of Gaza in 1988, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Science.
Arrested by Israel in 1989 without trial, he spent 16 months in prison accused of involvement in Hamas’ military wing. Upon release, he co-founded the Al-Qassam Brigades and played a significant role in operations against Israel throughout the 1990s.
What We Know About the 20-Year-Old Man Who Tried to Assassinate Donald Trumphttps://english.aawsat.com/features/5040172-what-we-know-about-20-year-old-man-who-tried-assassinate-donald-trump
Law enforcement officials near the home of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the person who attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump, during an investigation in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA, 14 July 2024. (EPA)
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What We Know About the 20-Year-Old Man Who Tried to Assassinate Donald Trump
Law enforcement officials near the home of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the person who attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump, during an investigation in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA, 14 July 2024. (EPA)
The 20-year-old nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a registered Republican who packed explosives in the vehicle he drove to the campaign rally an hour from his home.
Law enforcement officials were working Sunday to learn more about Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to determine what motivated him to open fire on the rally from a nearby rooftop, killing one spectator, before he was shot dead by the Secret Service.
The FBI said Sunday it has not yet identified any underlying ideology or threatening writing or social media posts from Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago and had no past criminal cases against him, according to public court records. The FBI said it believes Crooks acted alone.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on social media the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. Two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. The man killed was Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief from the area who Pennsylvania's governor says died a “hero” by diving onto his family to protect them.
Relatives of Crooks didn’t immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late Saturday that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but wouldn’t speak about his son until after he talked to law enforcement. An FBI official told reporters that Crooks' family is cooperating with investigators.
Supporters of former president Donald Trump gather outside of Mar-A-Lago on July 14, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Getty Images/AFP)
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, Crooks can be seen crossing the stage to receive his diploma, appearing slight of build and wearing glasses. The school district said it will cooperate fully with investigators. His senior year, Crooks was among several students given an award for math and science, according to a Tribune-Review story at the time.
Crooks tried out for the school's rifle team but was turned away because he was a bad shooter, said Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.
Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. Other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits, Kohler said.
“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was just an outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.”
Crooks worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide, a job that generally involves food preparation. Marcie Grimm, the administrator of Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.
Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger told AP on Sunday that Crooks had been previously unknown to investigators in his county and had not been on their radar. He said the investigation had so far not turned up any evidence that he had coordinated with anyone else in the region.
A police vehicle along Rt 68 that runs adjacent to the Butler Fairgrounds where former President Donald J. Trump and two members of the audience were shot at a campaign rally the day before on July 14, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/AFP)
A blockade had been set up Sunday preventing traffic near Crooks’ house, which is in an enclave of modest brick houses in the hills outside blue-collar Pittsburgh and about an hour's drive from the site of the Trump rally. Police cars were stationed at an intersection near the house and officers were seen walking through the neighborhood.
Bomb-making materials were found inside Crooks' vehicle near the Trump rally and at his home, according to two officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A white Allegheny County Police truck identified as bomb squad pulled up to the home late Sunday morning.
Crooks used an AR-style rifle, which authorities said they believe was purchased by his father. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said that investigators do not yet know if he took the gun without his father's permission.
One local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, said the officials, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A video posted to social media and geolocated by AP shows Crooks wearing a gray t-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
A view of the entrance of the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where Thomas Matthew Crooks, named by the FBI as the "subject involved" in the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump, worked as a dietary aide, in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, US, July 14, 2024. (Reuters)
The roof where Crooks lay was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. That is a distance at which US Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.
Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by AP show he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of its creator firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins.
Matt Carriker, the Texas-based creator of Demolition Ranch, did not respond to a phone message or email on Sunday, but posted a photo of Crooks' bloody corpse wearing his brand's T-shirt on social media with the comment “What the hell.”
