Hamas denies it’s pulling out of ceasefire talks; Israel ‘confident’ Mohammed Deif was killed in attack

Israeli security officials said on Sunday they were pretty confident their targeted attack against Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was successful despite the group’s denial.

Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. announced he would step down after a tumultuous semester that saw pro-Palestinian protests escalate into building occupations, arrests and a campus-wide shutdown.

Hamas denies report it’s quitting Gaza ceasefire talks

Hamas denied it was pulling out of ceasefire talks, a day after an Israeli air strike on Gaza aimed at killing two top Hamas officials left at least 90 people dead and 300 injured.

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, described as “baseless” an AFP report that the group would quit the talks. Israel’s latest “escalation” had been engineered to “block the way to reaching an agreement”, he added in a brief statement.

Earlier, AFP cited an official saying that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh had told international mediators Qatar and Egypt that the organisation would halt negotiations due to Israel’s “lack of seriousness, continued policy of procrastination and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres against unarmed civilians”.

Israel security officials said on Sunday they were confident that their targeted attack against Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was successful despite the group’s assertion that he was “well” and continuing to oversee operations of the Hamas military wing.

The second main target of Saturday’s strike — Rafa Salama, commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade — was killed, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement. His elimination “significantly impedes Hamas’ military capabilities”, said the IDF.

Deif and Salama were two of the alleged masterminds behind the 7 October attacks on southern Israel in which almost 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted — 120 of whom are still being held in Gaza.

The IDF said separately on Sunday that it struck a number of Hamas members operating in the area of UNRWA’s Abu Oraiban School building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza.

“This location served as a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip were directed and carried out,” said Israel’s military. The Hamas government media office said 15 people were killed in the strike.

US President Joe Biden put forward the ceasefire proposal in late May, describing a three-phase approach that would lead to a permanent end to the conflict, now into its tenth month. He said it had Israel’s full support — something that Israeli officials backed away from at the time.

In a news conference on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that he didn’t believe the strike would be a setback for the long-running talks.

Netanyahu said he stood by the outlines of the US-backed ceasefire proposal. But he contended Hamas had requested more changes, and that Israel remained committed to several goals, including the right to meet its war aims and the release of as many live hostages in the first phase of a three-stage deal.

Israel launched a punishing war against Hamas following the 7 October attacks. More than 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel ‘confident’ Hamas commander was killed 

Israeli security officials said on Sunday they were pretty confident their targeted attack against Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif was successful despite the group’s denial.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they’d been following Deif’s movements for a couple of days, pinpointed his location and carried out an attack on Saturday that would have been hard to survive. Rafa Salama, a Hamas brigade commander, was killed in the attack, the IDF said in a statement, which didn’t refer to Deif.

Hamas said some 90 people died in the assault in the Khan Younis area of the central Gaza Strip but that Deif, a founder of the group and a mastermind of the October attack that led to the current war, was alive — and had even watched Netanyahu address a news conference on Saturday night. It didn’t mention Salama.

Israeli officials say they don’t know how many died, but that the majority were Hamas officials or associates.

If Deif did escape, it wouldn’t be the first time. The supreme commander of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, he has been such a shadowy figure that the only known picture of him dates back to when he was a teenager. He’s been on the run for two decades and has never appeared in public.

The assessment by Israeli security analysts is that his death — if confirmed — will be a major blow against Hamas and will help force the group, considered terrorists by the US and European Union, to close the deal currently being negotiated for a ceasefire to return Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and bring aid to the Gaza Strip.

To many outsiders, such a claim seems counter-intuitive: a deadly attack during negotiations isn’t likely to inspire flexibility. However, Israeli officials are persuaded that the only way to get Hamas to close a ceasefire deal is by cornering it and eliminating its commanders.

Read more: Dozens dead after Israel targets top Hamas commanders 

“In recent weeks, we have identified clear cracks in Hamas under the power of the blows we are raining on them. We see changes. We see weakness,” Netanyahu said at his news conference.

The latest operation “also contributes to this, whatever its results are. Hamas’ commanders are hiding in underground tunnels and are cut off from their forces in the field. The Gazan population understands more and more the magnitude of the disaster that Hamas has inflicted on it,” he said.

The military said that Salama joined Hamas in the early 1990s, has headed its Khan Younis brigade since 2016 and was one of the masterminds of the 7 October attacks on southern Israel. His elimination significantly impeded the group’s military capabilities, it said

Other analyses are less sanguine for Israel, suggesting that Hamas’ daring and brutal attack won it deep loyalty among Palestinians.

Deif has long been on the top of Israel’s most-wanted list. He survived numerous attempts on his life, one of which was believed to have left him with an unspecified disability. In 2014, Israel bombed the house where he was staying, killing his wife and seven-month-old son.

He rose to be Hamas’ supreme military leader after his predecessor, Salah Shehada, was killed in a massive Israeli air strike on Gaza City in 2002.

As missiles rained down on Israel and several thousand Hamas operatives killed and kidnapped soldiers and civilians last October, a prerecorded speech by Deif was broadcast.

“We have decided to put an end to all of the occupation’s crimes,” he said. “The time is over for them to act without accountability. Thus, we announce the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.”

Born Mohammed al-Masri, he became widely known by the surname Deif — Arabic for “guest” — because he’s constantly on the move and perpetually housed by others. If he was killed, that would leave only Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, still running the organisation inside the coastal strip. Other leaders are in exile.

Cal Poly Humboldt president exits after Pro-Palestinian protests

Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. announced he would step down after a tumultuous semester that saw pro-Palestinian protests escalate into building occupations, arrests and a campus-wide shutdown.

In April, pro-Palestinian protesters took over two buildings at the northern California school, demanding stronger support for Palestinian rights and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The standoff culminated in a confrontation with police in riot gear, who rounded up and arrested dozens of protesters.

Shortly after, university officials shut down the campus for the remainder of the school year, citing safety concerns and ongoing disruptions. Graduation ceremonies were moved to off-campus locations.

This spring, thousands of protesters set up tent encampments on US campuses across the country, from Columbia University to the University of California at Los Angeles, with many calling for schools to sever financial ties with Israeli-linked entities and US weapons-makers. The protests in some cases led to violent clashes between protesters, counter-protesters and the police.

California State University (CSU) system Chancellor Mildred Garcia praised Jackson for his leadership during “one of the most momentous periods” in the school’s history. In a statement, she highlighted accomplishments like the state’s $458-million investment into the university, as well as growth in research and enrollment.

CSU will conduct a nationwide search for the institution’s next president. Jackson will remain on campus in his role as a tenured professor. DM

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