Israel kills Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in airstrike in the Gaza Strip

Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip) (AP): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking before parliament, Netanyahu included Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli strikes.

Mohammed is the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader and one of the masterminds of the October 7, 2023 attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year.

As the head of Hamas' armed wing, Sinwar would have had the final word on any agreement to release the hostages, and his death could further complicate US and Arab efforts to broker a ceasefire. Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been either defeated or disarmed and sent into exile.

Mentioned in passing

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 ten 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 military declined to comment on whether Sinwar had been targeted or killed.

At least six people were killed in the strike and 40 wounded, Gaza's Health Ministry said at the time.

A Hamas veteran

Mohammed Sinwar was born in 1975 in the urban Khan Younis refugee camp. His family was among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. The refugees and their descendants today make up the majority of Gaza's population.

Like his older brother, Yahya, the younger Sinwar joined Hamas after it was founded in the late 1980s as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He became a member of the group's military wing, known as the Qassam Brigades.

He rose through the ranks to become a member of its so-called joint chiefs of staff, bringing him close to its longtime commander, Deif, who was killed in a strike last year.

Mohammed Sinwar was one of the planners of a 2006 cross-border attack on an Israeli army post. In that attack, militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was held for five years and later exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar.

In an interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera TV aired three years ago, Mohammed Sinwar said that when Hamas threatens Israel, “we know how to specify the location that hurts the occupation and how to press them.”

Hamas has said that Mohammed Sinwar was targeted by Israel on several occasions and was briefly believed to have been killed in 2014. He is said to have been one of a handful of top commanders who knew about the October 7 attack in advance.

In December 2023, the Israeli military released a video it said showed a bearded Mohammed Sinwar sitting next to a driver in a car as it moved inside a tunnel in the Gaza Strip. Hamas never confirmed what would be one of the few public images of him.