Israel’s military confirmed the death of Hamas commander Mohammed Deif Thursday morning. The Israel Defense Forces says he was responsible for planning and carrying out the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Israel says Deif was killed by an airstrike in Gaza last month.
Meanwhile, the United States has been mostly silent about the reported assassination of a top Hamas leader in Iran. Thousands of mourners gathered in Iran Thursday for the memorial of Hamas terrorist chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is asking all parties in the Middle East not to escalate the situation. The top diplomat says he’s been talking to counterparts in the region since Haniyeh’s reported death. Blinken says all his colleagues are focused on reaching a ceasefire.
Haniyeh is the second top leader of an Iran-backed group to have been killed within days. Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon in southern Beirut on Tuesday.
The U.N. secretary-general says the attacks in Beirut and Tehran represent a dangerous escalation in the Middle East. He says the international community needs to work together and use diplomacy to deescalate.
NTD spoke with Aryeh Lightstone, a former senior adviser to the U.S. ambassador to Israel and former special envoy for the Abraham Accords, for analysis.