Mohammed Deif is alive, says Hamas official

Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas' Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades, is alive, according to group official Osama Hamdan. 

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published on Thursday, Hamdan said Deif is "fine" after Israel claimed to have assassinated him. 

This is the first time a senior Hamas official has addressed the Israeli claim, made on 1 August, that Deif was killed in an airstrike last month.

Hamdan told AP that Hamas believes Israel mentioned Deif as the target of the July strike to "justify the massacre" that day, in which 88 Palestinians were killed in a bombing of the so-called humanitarian zone.