Mohammed Sinwar, head of Hamas' armed wing, has been killed, Netanyahu says

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 the terrorist group.

Sinwar is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terrorist 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 terrorist 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.

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.

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

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 terror 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.