Author: Nidal Mugrabi
Jan 7 (Reuters) – Mohammad Sinwar, the elusive Hamas military chief in Gaza, has been Israel’s most wanted fugitive in the months since his brother’s death in 2024. Hamas announced his death at the age of 49 on December 29, some seven months after Israel claimed it killed him in an attack.
Hamas gave no details of Sinwar’s death but expressed condolences for him and other group leaders, calling them “heroic martyrs.” Hamas confirmed in a statement that Sinwar had been the leader of the group’s armed forces.
Sinwar was promoted to the top of Hamas in 2024 after his brother Yahya was killed in combat. Yahya was the architect of the October 2023 attack on Israel that led to the Gaza war, and later became the overall leader of the Palestinian organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May 2025 that Sinwar had been killed. Less than two weeks later, Israeli forces said they found Sinwar’s body in a tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza.
Sinwar’s death is expected to leave his next commander, Izzeldeen Haddad, in charge of overseeing operations in northern Gaza and responsible for Hamas’ armed wing across the enclave.
It is unclear how the death will affect Hamas’s decision-making more broadly, such as whether it will strengthen or weaken the influence of exiled members of the group’s leadership council on policy matters, particularly the full implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreed with Israel in October.
assassination attempt
Hamas officials describe Sinwar as a “ghost” who has long outmaneuvered Israeli intelligence.
Hamas sources said that like his brother Yahya, Sinwar had survived multiple assassination attempts by Israel, including airstrikes and planting of explosives.
On one of Sinwar’s visits to the cemetery, his comrades discovered a remote-controlled explosive similar to the bricks planted along his path, according to Hamas sources.
In 2003, Hamas agents foiled an assassination attempt by discovering a bomb in the wall of Mohammad Sinwar’s home, which the group blamed on Israeli intelligence.
secret conspiracy
Hamas sources said Mohammed Sinwar, known for his covert operations, played a central role in planning and executing Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the country’s most serious security failure.
He is also widely believed to be one of the masterminds of the 2006 cross-border attack and kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Hamas imprisoned Shalit for five years before replacing him with more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
His brother Yahya Sinwar, whose orchestration of the 2023 attack undermined Israel’s reputation as an invincible force in a hostile region, was among those released under the deal.
Hamas weakened but still standing
Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas. The offensive in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, the Middle East’s most advanced military, has severely weakened the group.
In 2024, Yahya Sinwar was killed during fighting during a routine Israeli patrol in Gaza.
Israel has released video of a critically injured Yahya Sinwar throwing a piece of wood at a hovering drone, his last stand against an old enemy before his death and the rise of his brothers.
But the group, which was created during the first Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation in 1987 and carried out suicide bombings that traumatized Israelis during the second intifada, remains.
From refugee to hardliner
Born on September 16, 1975, Sinwar rarely makes public appearances or interviews with the media. He gave a lengthy interview to Al Jazeera in a documentary aired in 2022, but sat in the dark wearing a hat to hide his appearance.
The Shinwa people originally came from Askara – now the Israeli city of Ashkelon, not far to the north of the Gaza Strip. When Israel declared independence during the 1948 war, they became refugees along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians in the so-called Nakba (catastrophe).
The family settled in Khan Younis, Gaza, an area that has been largely reduced to rubble during the recent war.
Mohammed Sinwar was educated at a school run by the United Nations Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA), which has long been the target of Israeli criticism, including during the recent war in Gaza.
He joined Hamas shortly after its establishment and was influenced by his brother Yahya. Yahya is a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Middle East’s oldest and once most influential Islamic organization.
His reputation as a hardliner helped him rise through the organization’s military ranks. In 2005, he led the Hamas Khan Yunis Brigade.
The unit is one of the largest and most powerful battalions in Hamas’s armed forces and has been responsible for cross-border attacks, firing rockets and planting bombs along the border. “It’s easier to attack Tel Aviv than to drink water,” Sinwar told Al Jazeera.
The unit also monitors the movements of Israeli soldiers around the clock. In 2006, an elite commando team led by Sinwar participated in Shalit’s kidnapping operation.
Sources close to Hamas said Sinwar developed close ties with Marwan Issa, deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, and Mohammad Deif, the aloof military chief. Both were killed by Israel in 2024.
Hamas said in a statement announcing Sinwar’s death on December 29 that he had replaced his successor.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Writing by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Olivier Holmey and Michael Georgy)
