NPR

Netanyahu says Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar has been killed by Israeli forces

By NPR's International Desk

Published May 28, 2025 at 9:05 AM PDT

A screengrab shows, according to the Israeli Army, Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar, taken from a handout video released Dec. 17, 2023.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar has been killed by Israeli forces.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Netanyahu said that Sinwar was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Netanyahu did not specify where Sinwar was killed. The Israeli military said on May 13 that it had targeted Hamas militants in an airstrike around the European Hospital complex in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Israeli media quoted defense officials saying that Sinwar was the target, but the military has yet to confirm he was killed in that strike.

Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas military leader in Gaza who Israel says was the mastermind of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people. Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel last October and Mohammed Sinwar subsequently became a senior Hamas commander in Gaza.

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The May 13 hospital airstrike killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 70. Citing security sources, Israeli media reported at the time that Mohammed Sinwar was underneath the area in a tunnel, and was believed to have been killed alongside 10 other militants.

Hamas did not immediately confirm if the strike killed Sinwar, who has survived multiple assassination attempts over the past decades.