Muhammad Sinwar, a Top Military Leader of Hamas, Is Dead, Israel Says

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Muhammad Sinwar, a Top Military Leader of ******, Is Dead, Israel Says

The Israeli military announced on Saturday night that it had killed Muhammad Sinwar, one of ******’s top military commanders in Gaza, during airstrikes this month that targeted the vicinity of a hospital in southern Gaza.

****** did not immediately respond to the claim of Mr. Sinwar’s death. During the war in Gaza, the ************ armed group has largely not confirmed the killing of its commanders in the moment, only announcing their demise weeks or even months later, if at all.

Mr. Sinwar’s death would be a blow to ******. The brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former ****** leader killed by Israel last year, he was one of the most powerful ****** leaders in Gaza still alive after nearly 20 months of war with Israel.

But Mr. Sinwar’s death may not immediately change ******’s strategy or operations, analysts said. Since the war began more than a year and a half ago, Israel has targeted and killed a number of ******’s top leaders, only to see the group continue its insurgency war against Israel in Gaza.

This month, Israeli aircraft struck an underground compound near the European Hospital, close to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Mr. Sinwar had recently been present, according to the Israeli military. At the time, Israeli officials said privately that they had been targeting Mr. Sinwar, but they did not mention him in their announcement of the strikes.

The Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, said that at least six people had been killed and at least 40 others wounded in that strike. Neither Israel nor ****** made any assertions about whether Mr. Sinwar had been killed — and he had survived numerous other Israeli assassination attempts.

Mr. Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar — an architect of ******’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, whom Israeli troops killed last year — and he followed in his footsteps for most of his life.

Born in Khan Younis, where his family had fled from what is now Ashkelon, in Israel, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Mr. Sinwar followed his older brother into ******, ultimately rising through the group’s leadership to its very pinnacle.

In addition to the Sinwar brothers, Muhammad Deif, the commander of ******’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July; and Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political chief, was killed on a visit to Iran in July, when he was attending the inauguration of the Iranian president.

The killings dealt a blow to ******’s leadership in Gaza, but they appeared to also fuel the militant group’s determination.

A recent Israeli intelligence assessment suggested that ****** had more than 20,000 fighters — about the same as before the war — despite thousands being killed since October 2023. More than 54,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Mr. Sinwar was an elusive figure who spent much of his life in hiding. He is believed to have spent much of the war underground in an effort to escape Israeli airstrikes. But in recent months, he had been seen aboveground in Khan Younis, including at Nasser Hospital, according to a Middle Eastern intelligence official.

In late 2023, the

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that it had searched his office in a raid on a ****** military post in Gaza, “where military doctrine documents were located.”

But he continued to elude Israeli forces.

Israel has accused him of being one of those responsible for planning an attack that led to the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2006. Mr. Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid into Israel and held in Gaza for five years.

Mr. Shalit was exchanged in 2011 for more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Among those freed was Yahya Sinwar.

****** abducted about 250 hostages from Israel in the 2023 attack, holding them in Gaza as bargaining chips for future negotiations. About 20 living hostages are believed to still be held in Gaza, along with the bodies of more than 30 others, according to Israel.

Reporting was contributed by Patrick Kingsley, Adam Rasgon, Ronen Bergman and Aaron Boxerman.

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