Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that Muhammed Sinwar, a top Hamas commander and younger brother of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, was “likely killed" in an airstrike on Gaza last week.
“Based on all indications, Mohammed Sinwar was killed in a strike carried out on the grounds of the European Hospital in Khan Younis," Katz said while speaking during a closed-door meeting with parliamentarians.
Muhammad Sinwar was the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli military in southern Gaza last October.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had targeted underground infrastructure beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which it said Hamas was using below the hospital, according to The Wall Street Journal.
According to the Saudi channel Al-Hadath, Sinwar’s body was recently recovered along with the remains of 10 of his aides. The report said that there was evidence that the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, was also killed in the strike.
However, the IDF has not officially confirmed Sinwar’s killing.
Palestinian health officials said the strike had killed six people and injured over 40.
Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. After Sinwar’s older brother Yahya was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Yahya was the mastermind behind the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the ongoing war in Gaza.
Killing Muhammed Sinwar would likely mark an important victory for Israel, which is under pressure to wrap up its 18-month-long war in the enclave.
As per the reports, Muhammed Sinwar, born in Khan Younis in 1975, followed in his brother’s footsteps and joined Hamas in the late 1980s.
He was arrested by Israeli forces in 1991 for suspected militant activity and spent less than a year in jail. He was also imprisoned for several years by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah during the 1990s.
In 2006, Sinwar was part of the Hamas cell that abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
