By bnm Tel Aviv bureau Hamas has belatedly confirmed for the first time that its senior military commander, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year in Gaza's Khan Younis area, along with his deputy Marwan Issa.

Deif was widely known as the second-highest-ranking Hamas official in Gaza, behind Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in the territory

Hamas has confirmed that its military chief, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip last year. Israel's military said in August that it had killed Deif the previous month, but Hamas had not confirmed this until now.