Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar eliminated by Israeli forces: Benjamin Netanyahu

Hamas Gaza chief, Mohammad Sinwar, has been eliminated by Israeli forces, the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Mohammad Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian armed group last year after Israel killed his brother, Yahya Sinwar, in combat.

“We eliminated Mohammad Deif, (Ismail) Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammad Sinwar,” Netanyahu said, confirming the death to the Israeli parliament, according to Reuters.

“In the last two days, we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” he added. Hamas has yet to confirm Sinwar’s death.

Earlier, Israeli media reported that Sinwar was targeted in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza earlier this month. However, it was not confirmed by the Israeli defence forces at the time.

Who was Mohammad Sinwar ?

After the death of his brother and Hamas’s late leader, Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad took over the military wing and the political command in Gaza.

Born Mohammad Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza, he worked his way up to the ranks of Hamas over several decades.

Nicknamed “the shadow” by Israeli officials due to his secretive activities, Sinwar was a key figure within the group. In 2006, he was involved with the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, an operation that later led to a prisoner exchange deal in 2011.

While spending years in Israeli and Palestinian prisons, he developed close ties with other Hamas leadership and joined the military wing of Hamas in 1991.

Mohammad Sinwar was regarded as the mastermind behind the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023.

Several attempts have previously been made by Israel to assassinate Sinwar. In 2014, Hamas announced that Sinwar had died during the Israel-Gaza war, but that information proved to be false.

Israel has vowed to seize control of Gaza and fight until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and exiled, and until the militant group returns the remaining 58 hostages seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, according to the Associated Press.