Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif is alive, says senior official

Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas' armed wing, is still alive, according to one of the movement's senior officials, Osama Hamdan. 

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published on Thursday, Hamdan said the head of the Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades was "fine" after Israel claimed to have killed him. 

This is the first time a senior Hamas official has addressed the Israeli claim, made on 1 August, that Deif was killed in air strikes on 13 July.

Hamdan told AP that Hamas believes Israel claimed Deif was the target of the July attack to "justify the massacre" on that day, during which 88 Palestinians were killed in the bombing of a so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

At least 289 others were wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry, as Israeli bombs struck tents housing displaced people in the al-Mawasi district of Khan Younis.

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