Who is Mohammed Sinwar, the Hamas leader Israel says it killed?
By SAMY MAGDY and BASSEM MROUE CAIRO AP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Wednesday that Mohammed Sinwar deduced to be the head of Hamas armed wing has been killed apparently confirming his death in a up-to-date strike in the Gaza Strip There was no confirmation from Hamas Related Articles Crowd is fired on at chaotic Gaza aid-distribution site killing at least and wounding Israeli troops fire warning shots as Palestinians overwhelm new Gaza food center How is the new Gaza aid plan supposed to work and why are so several aid groups against it At least people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza as Israel lets minimal aid in Suspect in shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers railed against Gaza war in online posts Sinwar is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar the Hamas leader who helped mastermind the Oct attack that started the Israel-Hamas war and who was killed by Israeli forces in October Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States Canada and the European Union Israeli strikes have decimated Hamas leadership during the -month war and Mohammed Sinwar was one of the last widely known leaders still alive in Gaza But the group has maintained its rule over the parts of Gaza not seized by Israel It still holds dozens of hostages and carries out sporadic attacks on Israeli forces As the head of Hamas armed wing Sinwar would have had the final word on any agreement to release the hostages and his death could further complicate U S and Arab efforts to broker a ceasefire Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been either defeated or disarmed and sent into exile Mentioned in passing Netanyahu mentioned the killing of Sinwar in a speech before parliament in which he listed the names of other top Hamas leaders killed during the war We have killed ten of thousands of terrorists We killed Mohammed Deif Ismail Haniyeh Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar he declared Netanyahu did not elaborate Israeli media had communicated that the younger Sinwar was the target of a May strike on what the military reported was a Hamas command center beneath the European Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis the Sinwars hometown The military declined to comment on whether Sinwar had been targeted or killed At least six people were killed in the strike and wounded Gaza s Physical condition Ministry revealed at the time A Hamas veteran Mohammed Sinwar was born in in the urban Khan Younis refugee camp His family was among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from what is now Israel during the war surrounding its creation The refugees and their descendants in the modern day make up the majority of Gaza s population Like his older brother Yahya the younger Sinwar joined Hamas after it was founded in the late s as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood He became a member of the group s military wing known as the Qassam Brigades He rose through the ranks to become a member of its so-called joint chiefs of staff bringing him close to its longtime commander Deif who was killed in a strike last year Mohammed Sinwar was one of the planners of a cross-border attack on an Israeli army post In that attack combatants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit who was held for five years and later exchanged for more than Palestinian prisoners including Yahya Sinwar In an interview with Qatar s Al Jazeera TV aired three years ago Mohammed Sinwar revealed that when Hamas threatens Israel we know how to specify the location that hurts the occupation and how to press them Hamas has declared that Mohammed Sinwar was targeted by Israel on several occasions and was briefly deduced to have been killed in He is stated to have been one of a handful of top commanders who knew about the Oct attack in advance In December the Israeli military published a video it commented established a bearded Mohammed Sinwar sitting next to a driver in a car as it moved inside a tunnel in the Gaza Strip Hamas never validated what would be one of the limited general images of him Mroue disclosed from Beirut
