Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Mohammad Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, was one of the most wanted militants eliminated in recent Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip.
There has been no official confirmation from Hamas regarding the report. Mohammad Sinwar was the last known senior leader believed to be alive in Gaza. He was the younger brother of the late Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in October 2024.
Hamas still holds many hostages and regularly carries out attacks on Israeli forces. The death of Sinwar could complicate efforts by the US and Arab nations to negotiate a ceasefire, as he was likely to have had significant influence over any such agreement.
Who was Mohammad Sinwar?
He was born in 1975 in the Khan Younis refugee camp, an urban area in Gaza. His family was among the many Palestinians displaced during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother Yahya, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas shortly after its establishment in the late 1980s, which originated as the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. He became an active member of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
Over time, Sinwar climbed the ranks and eventually joined the group’s joint military leadership, placing him close to the long-standing commander Deif, who was killed in an airstrike the previous year.
Sinwar played a role in organizing a 2006 cross-border assault on an Israeli military position, which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Schalit was held captive for five years before being released in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Sinwar’s brother Yahya.
In a televised interview with Qatar’s Al Jazeera three years ago, Sinwar stated that Hamas is strategic when threatening Israel, knowing exactly where to strike to inflict damage and pressure the Israeli occupation.
Israel has targeted Sinwar multiple times, and there were reports he was killed in 2014, which later proved false. He is believed to have been among a select group of senior commanders aware of the planning behind the October 7 attack.
In December 2023, the Israeli military released footage purportedly showing Sinwar inside a moving vehicle within a tunnel in Gaza. Hamas has never publicly confirmed this as an image of him, making it one of the few publicly available glimpses of the Hamas leader.
Netanyahu mentioned the killing of Sinwar in a speech before parliament in which he listed the names of other top Hamas leaders killed during the war. “We have killed tens of thousands of terrorists. We killed (Mohammed) Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” he said.
Netanyahu did not elaborate. Israeli media had reported that the younger Sinwar was the target of a May 13 strike on what the military said was a Hamas command centre beneath the European Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Sinwars' hometown.
The Israeli military declined to comment on whether Sinwar was specifically targeted or killed in any of the recent strikes. At least six people were killed in the strike and 40 wounded, Gaza's Health Ministry said at the time.
(with agency inputs)
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