The IDF confirmed 100% that its July 13 airstrike targeting Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif succeeded in killing him, in an announcement on Thursday.
The military said that only in recent hours it had received additional intelligence to confirm Deif's death to a complete certainty, taking into account that the defense establishment had been confident for the last two weeks that its air strike had killed him.
Pressed, the IDF would not only not reveal what the new confirmatory information was, but would also not share what category of information it was.
In such cases in the past, the information is often a very sensitive human spy or a very sensitive electronic spying element which the defense establishment feels would be lost if even a hint of who or what it was comes out.
IDF sources indicated that some members of Hamas and Hezbollah have known for some time that Deif was dead, but that others may not have known because portions of Hamas are currently cut off from the broader Hamas operational network.
The IDF's July announcement
Already on July 21, the military had revealed that Deif was to a 100% certainty in the room with Hamas Khan Yunis Brigade Commander Rafah Salame, when the bombs which were dropped and killed Salame struck.
The fact that Salame was in fact killed and the size of the bombs had already made it a practical certainty that Deif was also killed, though IDF sources until Thursday had cautioned that in one of the prior failed attempted assassinations of Deif, he was in the room which was hit, but happened to be in a tiny part of the room which was just shielded enough by the surrounding objects and setting to survive.
As part of the assassination, the air force had kept a series of five different pairs of aircraft and drones rotating through the role of hovering and passing by the residence where Deif was expected to visit Salame, such that the moment the war cabinet approved an operation, the air force would be able to open fire in practically no time at all.
This is different from the standard situation where aircraft only take off to strike a target after approval is given which creates a certain amount of gap time when a target might escape.
Air force units were in the sky for more than a day and a half, waiting for the word to attack, though Israeli intelligence had been following Salame at the location for weeks.