JERUSALEM, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the death of Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’s top military commander in Gaza and brother of the group’s late leader Yahya Sinwar, marking what Israel claims is a major blow to the armed wing of the Palestinian group.
Speaking during a special parliamentary debate on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, Netanyahu said that Sinwar was killed in a targeted air strike earlier this month in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
“In 600 days of the ‘War of Revival’, we have indeed changed the face of the Middle East,” Netanyahu declared.
“We drove the terrorists out of our territory… eliminated Mohammed Deif, [Hamas political leader Ismail] Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar.”
The Israeli military had previously refrained from confirming Sinwar’s death, though it acknowledged a major air strike on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, targeting underground Hamas infrastructure near the European Hospital in Khan Younis.
The operation, Israeli media reported, was aimed at Mohammed Sinwar.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency in Gaza said 28 people were killed in that strike, which reduced large sections of the hospital’s courtyard to rubble.
Hamas has not confirmed nor denied Sinwar’s death.
CCTV footage from the site showed civilians, including women and children, moving through the area moments before it was hit by a powerful blast.
Medical staff said they received no advance warning from Israeli authorities, and the hospital had not been listed in any evacuation order issued since fighting resumed on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, after a temporary ceasefire collapsed.
Mohammed Sinwar, 49, was a longstanding figure in Hamas’s military operations. He joined the movement in the late 1980s, eventually leading its Khan Younis Brigade.
He was believed to have played a key role in the 2006 cross-border attack in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted — an event that led to a major prisoner exchange five years later.
Israeli intelligence has also linked Sinwar to the planning of Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, assault on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage — the attack that triggered Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza.
Since then, more than 54,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The European Hospital has remained out of service since the Tuesday, May 13, 2025, strike.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the attack, stressing that international humanitarian law obligates all parties to avoid civilian casualties, regardless of military objectives.
“The killing of civilians is as tragic as it is abhorrent,” Türk said, adding that potential military gains do not absolve parties of legal obligations to protect civilian life.
Netanyahu also addressed the plight of the remaining hostages in Gaza. “I am fully focused on the mission of bringing back all our hostages – both the living and the fallen,” he said, confirming that 20 of the 58 remaining hostages are known to be alive, while 38 are believed to be deceased.
The prime minister said that a “dramatic shift” in Israel’s strategy had occurred in recent days, citing the government’s takeover of aid distribution in Gaza through the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a controversial system that bypasses the United Nations and employs U.S. security contractors.
The UN has criticised the initiative, warning it undermines core humanitarian principles and risks deepening the crisis on the ground.
