The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have announced that they have eliminated Mohammed Deif, the military leader of Hamas, in an airstrike.

The Israeli military targeted the compound where Deif was hiding, and other terrorists were killed in the attack, according to the announcement.

For Israel, the one-eyed Deif had been a thorn in their side for years despite numerous assassination attempts against him.

Deif, a controversial figure who rose through the ranks of Hamas, survived five previous assassination attempts, during which his wife and two children were killed. He himself lost both legs and one arm.

Deif, who was involved in bomb-making, meticulously planned the bloody attack in Gaza that surprised Israeli officials. He ordered terrorists to use explosives and bulldozers to breach the fences surrounding Gaza to allow hundreds of others to enter.

Israel imprisoned him in 2000, but he managed to escape at the beginning of the Second Palestinian Intifada.

His wartime nickname was “The Visitor,” referring to the practice of Palestinian fighters staying each night at different sympathizers’ properties to avoid detection by Israeli intelligence.

Deif, who was behind a decade-long tunnel-digging project under Gaza, was born as Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri in the refugee camp of Khan Younis in 1965, when Gaza was under Egyptian control.

He became the supreme military commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades after the assassination of Salah Shehadeh by Israel in July 2002.