Mohamed Sinwar’s death comes seven months after his brother Yahya was killed in an Israeli mission in Rafah. The Sinwar brothers’ story has now ended. But central to their story is an audacious operation
On May 13, Israeli forces struck an underground facility beneath the European Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis. The Israeli military claimed it had targeted a senior Hamas command node. Days later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament that the military had “eliminated” Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of ex-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Hamas has not confirmed his death, and no official obituary or funeral has been held. That silence has raised speculation about his status, though Palestinian sources close to the group believe he was indeed killed in the strike.
Mohamed’s death comes seven months after Yahya was killed in an Israeli mission in Rafah in October last year. The Sinwar brothers’ story has now ended. Central to their story is an audacious operation: the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier that eventually secured the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya himself.
The Making Of A Militant
Yahya Sinwar was born in 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, the eldest of several brothers in a family displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. His younger brother, Mohammed, was born in 1975 in the same camp. Raised under occupation, shaped by deprivation, and radicalised through Israel’s repeated military incursions into Gaza, both brothers would rise through the ranks of Hamas, albeit in different spheres: Yahya in politics, Mohammed in the military.
While Yahya was known for his strategic mind and political ambition, Mohammed remained largely in the shadows, emerging as a field commander in Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Captive Becomes Bargaining Chip
On June 25, 2006, three Palestinian militant groups launched a cross-border raid from Gaza into Israel near the Kerem Shalom checkpoint. Two Israeli soldiers were killed, and a third, 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, was taken prisoner.
Among those behind the operation, Israeli media and military analysts later said, was Mohammed Sinwar, who is believed to have helped plan and command the raid. The attackers used a tunnel to infiltrate Israel and returned with Shalit alive.
Yahya Sinwar, imprisoned by Israel since 1988, was a key name on Hamas’s internal list of demands.
The capture of Shalit triggered immediate Israeli military operations across Gaza. Israel arrested dozens of Hamas political leaders and launched airstrikes targeting the group’s infrastructure. Yet, despite international pressure and repeated military efforts, Hamas maintained control over Shalit’s whereabouts, denying Red Cross access and revealing only minimal information about his condition.
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