Israeli air strike that killed top Hamas leader in Gaza hit meeting of top militants

The precision and timing of the latest attack demonstrated Israel’s significant intelligence capability. Mohammed Sinwar was known to be very particular about keeping a low profile, and only a handful of people usually knew about his movements or how to contact him.

An image from an undated video released by Israel Defense Forces in 2023 shows a man they say is Mohammed Sinwar.

The Israeli air strike that targeted Hamas’s Gaza chief this month hit him as he attended a meeting of the group’s highest ranking militants, killing several important operatives and leaving a void in the top leadership of the US-designated terrorist group, Hamas and Arab officials said.

The air strike killed Mohammed Sinwar, who was quietly buried days later, along with other top militants including Mohammad Shabana, the commander of the group’s Rafah brigade, the officials said.

The Hamas leaders had gathered in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to discuss matters including their approach to ceasefire talks with Israel when they were hit, the officials said. The meeting went against Hamas’s wartime security protocols and created an opening for Israel to hit several high-value targets at once.

Sinwar became the de facto head of Hamas in Gaza after Israel in October killed his brother Yahya Sinwar, who was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Israel has also killed the leader of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, his deputy Marwan Issa, and many other top militants.

The precision and timing of the latest attack demonstrated Israel’s significant intelligence capability, the officials said. Sinwar was known to be very particular about keeping a low profile, and only a handful of people usually knew about his movements or how to contact him, they said. He operated largely behind the scenes, earning him the nickname “Shadow,” the Arab officials said.

Hamas found Sinwar’s body a day after the strike and buried it in a temporary grave in another tunnel after his family was informed, the officials said, confirming Israeli claims that he was likely dead. Hamas plans to move Sinwar’s body to a proper burial site once the fighting stops, the officials said.

Hamas declined to respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told a closed-door parliamentary meeting that Sinwar was likely killed in a strike carried out on the grounds of the European Hospital in Khan Younis, according to an Israeli official familiar with the meeting. Israel targeted underground infrastructure that it said Hamas was using below the hospital. Palestinian health officials at the time said six people were killed and more than 40 injured as a result of the strike.

Hamas hasn’t confirmed Sinwar’s death, in part because the group’s leadership is figuring out who takes over in the war-torn strip, the officials said. Among the front-runners is Izz al-Din Haddad, Hamas’s military head in northern Gaza, the officials said.

A power struggle or void at the top would come just as Hamas faces a renewed and extensive Israeli military offensive, as well as protests from Gaza’s war-weary Palestinians eager for an end to more than a year and a half of violence and deprivation.

Hundreds of residents have taken to the streets to denounce Hamas and urge an end to the war since March, when a fragile ceasefire in Gaza collapsed.

Hamas has historically been a decentralised organisation, building in redundancies that helped the group recover from targeted killings throughout the years. But Yahya Sinwar took steps to centralise power under himself and toward the military wing and away from Hamas’s exiled leadership in Doha.

With the Sinwar brothers dead, Hamas’s leadership in Doha could try to regain influence in Gaza through a more pliable leader there, the officials said.

Mohammed Sinwar was believed to be about 50, and, like his older brother Yahya, joined Hamas at an early age. But unlike his brother, who spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison, Mohammed didn’t spend a significant amount of time in Israeli jail and was less understood by Israel’s security establishment.

He was at the centre of Hamas’s revival effort, in which the group recruited new fighters and began to rebuild ahead of Israel’s renewed offensive. Close to Hamas’s military wing, he formerly headed the Khan Younis brigade, which was responsible for the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier who was ultimately traded for Yahya Sinwar’s release from an Israeli prison.

Wall Street Journal