The brother of slain leader Yahya Sinwar was eliminated in a major May operation targeting Hamas leadership in Gaza tunnels.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that Israeli forces killed Mohammed Sinwar, the presumed Hamas leader in Gaza and brother of the slain top commander Yahya Sinwar.
“We have eliminated Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu told Parliament in a formal confirmation of his death.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation following a massive Israeli airstrike on May 13 that targeted a tunnel hideout beneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza. The operation, part of Israel’s ongoing offensive against Hamas, involved heavy bombing of the area believed to be sheltering Sinwar.
While earlier Israeli media reports and defense officials had hinted at Sinwar’s death, the government had withheld official confirmation until Wednesday.
Defense Minister Israel Katz had previously suggested Sinwar’s fate in mid-May, telling a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee session that there were “increasing signs” Hamas’s Gaza leader had been killed.
Military sources also told The Jerusalem Post that, though official confirmation was pending, evidence strongly indicated that Sinwar and several key aides were killed in the strike. Among the reported dead was Mohammed Shabanah, commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade and likely Sinwar’s successor.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released video footage allegedly showing Mohammed Sinwar moving through a tunnel near the Erez border crossing shortly before the attack. The footage was part of Israeli intelligence efforts to locate high-value Hamas targets.
A central figure in Hamas’s leadership
Mohammed Sinwar took over Hamas’s Gaza operations following the death of his brother Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli military operation in Rafah in October 2024. Yahya Sinwar, widely regarded as the mastermind behind Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, had been the group’s most prominent figure.
Since Yahya’s death, Mohammed oversaw Hamas’s activities in Gaza, including the handling of Israeli hostages. According to Israeli estimates, 21 of the remaining 58 hostages are believed to be still alive.
With Mohammed Sinwar’s death, only one of Hamas’s original five brigade commanders before the war—Gaza City Brigade leader Az-adin al-Hadad—remains alive, positioning him as the likely next military chief of the group.
Another Sinwar brother killed
The confirmation of Mohammed Sinwar’s death comes just days after Israel announced the killing of another Sinwar brother, Zakaria Sinwar, in a separate airstrike. Zakaria, a history professor at Gaza’s Islamic University, died from injuries sustained during a May 17 strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Sinwar family has long been a pillar of Hamas’s leadership, and Yahya Sinwar’s death last year dealt a severe blow to the group. Israel’s military campaign has systematically targeted Hamas’s senior ranks, including political chief Ismail Haniyeh and military commander Mohammed Deif.
Hamas’s secretive leadership structure
Unlike Hezbollah, which has cultivated a public personality cult around its leaders, Hamas has maintained secrecy around its top military figures, particularly within its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.
“The name of the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades will remain secret,” a source close to Hamas told reporters. Experts believe Mohammed Sinwar’s familial ties to Yahya and his own militant background gave him automatic authority within Hamas’s ranks.
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