Al Jazeera airs unseen Hamas footage of Deif meeting with military wing chiefs

Al Jazeera has broadcast material not previously made public showing the senior command of Hamas's military wing gathered underground, led by Mohammed Deif. The Times of Israel reported that the undated footage, aired on October 30, 2026, dates from several years before the war that began on October 7, and that Hamas posted an image from it on its Telegram channel soon after the broadcast. According to that report, every commander visible in the image has since been killed by Israel.

The still shows Deif seated on a bed at the far end of a room below ground, with brigade commanders and heads of departments sitting on a carpet in front of him. N12, the news arm of Israel's Channel 12, said the footage appeared in the Al Jazeera programme and that those filmed included Deif, his deputy Marwan Issa and Mohammed Sinwar, among other senior figures.

Who appears in the image

Among those The Times of Israel identified in the picture are Ahmed Ghandour, Mohammed Odeh, Raad Saad, Deif himself, Ayman Nofal, Marwan Issa, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Mohammed Sinwar, Rafa Salama and Mohammed Shabana, with its list continuing beyond the excerpt available to us. Abu Ali Express, a Hebrew-language Telegram channel that tracks Arab media and militant groups, described the session as a meeting of the armed wing's general staff and assigned roles to the participants:

• Marwan Issa: deputy to Deif as head of the military wing
• Ahmed Ghandour: commander of the northern Gaza Strip brigade
• Ghazi Abu Tama'a: head of weapons and combat services
• Mohammed Odeh: head of intelligence
• Izz al-Din al-Haddad: commander of the Gaza City brigade
• Ayman Nofal: commander of the central camps brigade
• Raad Saad: head of military production
• Mohammed Shabana: commander of the Rafah brigade
• Hakam al-Issa: head of training
• Bassem Issa: Gaza City brigade commander until 2021

The military wing is formally called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Its structure mirrors a conventional army, with territorial brigades across the Gaza Strip and staff departments for intelligence, weapons production and training, which is why the image is being read as a portrait of the group's entire command at the time.

Other material in the broadcast

The programme, titled in English as The Hidden Is More Immense, carried several further items. Abu Ali Express said it included a recording of what it described as the first phone call between Yahya Sinwar, then Hamas's leader in Gaza, and Deif after the ceasefire that ended the fighting Israel calls Operation Guardian of the Walls on May 21, 2021. The channel said Sinwar was emotional, close to tears, that both men had survived. Joe Truzman, an analyst at FDD, relayed Al Jazeera's own description of the clip as an exclusive recording made as the 2021 ceasefire was announced.

Abu Ali Express also posted footage it said shows Deif dragging one leg as he walked through Hamas tunnels, and a photograph from the 90s in the West Bank showing him beside Amjad Abu Khalaf, a Hamas operative the channel said was killed in 1994. It noted the photo predates the injuries Deif suffered in Israeli attempts on his life. The Jerusalem Post's headline said Al Jazeera had also aired documents detailing plans for the October 7 attack, though the portion of that report available to us does not describe them.

A changed command in Gaza City

According to Abu Ali Express, the series also featured an interview, with the speaker shown only in silhouette, of a figure called Abu Obeida, presented as the new Gaza City brigade commander. The channel said he took the post after Haddad "left" it, placing that word in quotation marks. The Times of Israel lists Haddad among the commanders killed by Israel.

How the footage reached Al Jazeera

The Times of Israel described the Qatari-owned broadcaster as a mouthpiece for Hamas. Truzman questioned how the network obtained the material, arguing that a years-long pattern points to Hamas handing such recordings to Al Jazeera. In a separate post, he said the setting and the seniority of those present made a tunnel location likely, and that all the leaders pictured were killed by Israeli forces and the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports gives a date or precise location for the meeting, beyond its being several years before October 7. Al Jazeera's account of how it acquired the footage is not included in the material, and Truzman's view that Hamas supplied it is his assessment rather than a confirmed fact. The contents of the documents mentioned by The Jerusalem Post are not described. The reports do not say when or how each named commander was killed, and the identity of the figure called Abu Obeida is not established. The role assignments for the participants come from Abu Ali Express alone.