Israel successfully eliminated Hamas’s Gaza-based chief Mohammad Sinwar in a May 13 airstrike in southern Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Wednesday during a speech in the Knesset Plenum that Israel had killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar earlier this month,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported.
“We took out Deif, Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” the Israeli Prime Minister told the parliament.
Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, had been elevated to the position of Hamas’s overall ‘military’ chief after the elimination of his elder brother by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in October 2024.
Mohammed Deif, Mohammed Sinwar’s predecessor, was killed in an Israeli strike in July 2024. Israeli and Arab media reports suggest that Mohammed Sinwar had assumed command over Hamas’s terrorist operations even before Deif was taken out by the IDF.
“The Hamas sources further revealed that Mohammed Sinwar had effectively been commanding the military wing for many years, despite Mohammed Deif serving as the overall commander,” the Israel Hayom newspaper reported recently. “According to them, Sinwar was responsible for managing many of the organization’s military and administrative operations.”
The May 13 strike that eliminated Mohammed Sinwar may have also taken out several of his top henchmen, who had assembled for a meeting in an underground bunker in southern Gaza. “The Israeli airstrike 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 its top leadership,” The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing Hamas and official Arab sources.
Israeli reportedly conducted the airstrike on a ‘rare’ occasion when Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders was not surrounded by hostages. Israeli fighter jets dropped around 40 bunker buster bombs in the precision strike which took place in the Hamas southern Gaza stronghold of Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, the IDF continued activities against Hamas terrorist targets across Gaza as the operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ entered its 24th day.
Soldiers belonging to five IDF divisions “continue operational activity against terrorist organizations throughout the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement Wednesday. “The troops eliminated several terrorists and struck terrorist infrastructure above and below ground.”
The Israeli Air Force “struck over the past 48 hours dozens of targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists and terrorist sites, anti-tank missile posts, weapon storage facilities, and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF statement added.
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