Netanyahu says Israel killed elusive Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in a recent Gaza strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that a recent airstrike killed Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’ elusive de facto leader in Gaza, the latest in a string of assassinations that have dealt a serious blow to the group’s top brass but are yet to break its grip on power.

Sinwar is the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the Israeli military in southern Gaza in October.

Sinwar, one of Israel's most wanted men, took control in October when his sibling was slain in southern Gaza. If confirmed by Hamas, the younger man's death would be one of the first such high-profile assassinations carried out by Israel in several months.

Mohammed Sinwar's older brother masterminded the Hamas terror strikes on October 7, 2023, which sparked a 600-day war with Israel. He was later named the militant group's overall leader after Israel killed his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas military wing leader and fellow Oct. 7 architect Mohammad Deif.

“We eliminated Mohammad Deif, Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said when confirming the death to Israel's parliament, known as the Knesset.

“In the last two days, we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” he added.

Sinwar has been at the head of Hamas' armed branch in Gaza since his brother's death. He was intimately involved in the planning for Hamas’ October 7 attacks, which saw more than 1,200 people in Israel killed and another roughly 250 taken hostage. A video of him in the tunnels that allegedly go to Israeli land surfaced several weeks after the assault.

Hamas had rejected claims about Sinwar’s death when the strike occurred, saying in a statement that only it is “authorized to confirm or deny what is published.”

Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting in the Gaza Strip until Hamas is destroyed and until it returns the remaining 58 hostages seized during the Oct. 7 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed.

Despite Sinwar's death, Yaakov Amidror, a former National Security Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that "it is likely that we will need to continue fighting for at least a year, in order to clean the Strip of remnants of Hamas rule, terrorists, and infrastructure." Amidror told the Jewish News Syndicate that only then could a new type of governance be implemented in Gaza.