• Israel's military on Thursday said it killed the chief of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July.
• Hamas initially denied that Deif was dead and did not immediately comment on Thursday's IDF announcement.
• More than 90 Palestinian people were killed in the strike, many of whom were displaced people living in the tents, Gaza health authorities said at the time.

Israel's military on Thursday said it killed the chief of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July.

"We can now confirm: Mohammed Deif was eliminated," the Israel Defense Forces posted on their official X account.

The military said it spent weeks trying to confirm whether Deif, the target of the strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, was killed in the blast, while Hamas denied his death. Hamas did not immediately comment on Thursday's IDF announcement when contacted by CNBC.

Israel says that Deif and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader in the Gaza Strip, were the chief planners of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took a further 253 hostage. Around 116 of those captives have since been freed.

The October attack set off the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, now in its 10th month, and the Israeli military offensive in Gaza that local authorities say has killed more than 39,000 people there.

The Israeli military said that the strike that killed Deif took place on July 13 and hit a compound on the outskirts of Khan Younis, near a tent encampment for displaced Palestinians. More than 90 people were killed in the strike, many of whom were living in the tents, Gaza health authorities said at the time.

The IDF announcement comes just one day after the killing of Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in a strike on Tehran, Iran. Hamas and Iran say this was carried out by Israel, while the Jewish state has declined to comment on Haniyeh's death.

Haniyeh's death was preceded by an Israeli strike on southern Beirut just hours earlier that the IDF said killed Fuad Shukr, a senior leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah who had directed and been involved in numerous terror attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets.

The triple deaths of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders announced over barely three days mark a severe blow to Hamas, but also a serious blow to any hopes of a cease-fire in the near term, regional analysts say.

"Israel may feel it has exacted vengeance against two of its biggest foes in highly sophisticated attacks," Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said before Deif's death was announced. "But its actions have once again pushed the Middle East to the precipice of dangerous escalation."

Long operating in the shadows, Deif was almost never seen in public and few photographs of him exist. He founded Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and directed numerous suicide bombings and missile attacks against Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Deif the "Osama Bin Laden of Gaza" in a post on the X social media platform on Thursday, saying his death marked "a significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas as a military and governing authority in Gaza, and in the achievement of the goals of this war."

Gallant added: "Israel's defense establishment will pursue Hamas terrorists — both the planners and the perpetrators of the 07.10 massacre. We will not rest until this mission is accomplished."