Mohammed Sinwar, head of Hamas' armed wing, has been killed, Netanyahu
says
[May 29, 2025]
By SAMY MAGDY and BASSEM MROUE
CAIRO (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday
that Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas' armed wing, has
been killed, apparently confirming his death in a recent strike in the
Gaza Strip. There was no confirmation from Hamas.
Sinwar is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who
helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the Israel-Hamas
war, and who was killed by Israeli forces in October 2024.
Israeli strikes have decimated Hamas’ leadership during the 19-month
war, and Mohammed Sinwar was one of the last widely known leaders still
alive in Gaza. But the militant group has maintained its rule over the
parts of Gaza not seized by Israel. It still holds dozens of hostages
and carries out sporadic attacks on Israeli forces.
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 U.S. 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 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 center 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.
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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
Oct. 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.
___
Mroue reported from Beirut.
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