The Israeli military announced that it has located and identified the body of Mohammed Sinwar, the leader of the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza, three weeks after he was reportedly killed in an airstrike.
“In a targeted IDF operation, and following the completion of the identification process, it has now been confirmed that the body of Mohammed Sinwar was found in an underground tunnel beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis,” the military said.
The military said that Sinwar was “eliminated” on May 13, along with several other members of the Palestinian group.
“During searches of the underground tunnel, several items belonging to Sinwar were found, along with additional intelligence findings that were transferred for further investigation, the military said.
Army spokeswoman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters that Israeli forces arrived at the scene on Sunday and that Sinwar’s body was found “underneath the hospital, right below the ambulance.”
He added that “through DNA tests and other checks” they confirmed that the body was indeed that of Mohammed Sinwar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on May 28 that the military killed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was also killed by Israeli forces during the Gaza war.
“We expelled the terrorists from our territory, entered the Gaza Strip by force, eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists, eliminated Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said in an address in the Israeli parliament.
Mohammed Sinwar’s older brother, Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel accuses of planning the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, was killed in October 2024.
