Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that the Hamas Gaza chief, Mohammad Sinwar, has been eliminated.
Sinwar was one of Israel’s most wanted and the younger brother of the militant group’s former leader, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in October 2024.
Speaking to parliament this afternoon, Netanyahu said: ‘We have eliminated Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and Mohammed Sinwar’.
Israeli media had reported that Sinwar, nicknamed The Shadow, was targeted in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza earlier this month.
According to reports, Sinwar was killed on May 13 after the IDF dropped a large number of bombs on a tunnel hideout under a hospital in Gaza.
Multiple airstrikes pounded the European hospital in southern Gaza where the IDF claimed it had found ‘Hamas terrorists in a command and control centre’ underground.
Footage showed huge clouds of smoke billowing out of the facility in Khan Younis following one of the biggest strikes on the Strip in weeks.
It was unclear how many civilians were killed, but medics said it was a ‘catastrophe’ with bodies left trapped under the rubble.
Arab media also reported earlier this month that the body of Sinwar was found in the ruins of a Hamas tunnel complex in Khan Younis, five days after it was bombed by the IDF.
Sources revealed it is also believed Sinwar had broken strict Hamas protocol by meeting with ten other Hamas kingpins.
Sinwar has been the leader of Hamas since his brother was assassinated, and therefore, in control of the remaining 58 Israeli hostages, around 21 of which are believed to be alive.
His death comes seven months after former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by a single gunshot to his head after an hour-long firefight between trainee soldiers on a routine operation in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip.
Yahya, known as the architect of the October 7 massacre, was killed after being hunted by intelligence services and the Israeli Defence Forces for over a year.
