Hamas’s Gaza leader Muhammad Sinwar targeted in IDF strike, fate unclear
At least 16 reported killed in strike that military says hit Hamas command center under Khan Younis hospital; IDF urges Jabalia residents to flee after rockets fired at Israel
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Muhammad Sinwar, was targeted in a massive Israeli airstrike at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon, security sources said.
The Israel Defense Forces, which did not confirm if Sinwar was killed, said in a statement that it had targeted Hamas operatives at an underground command center belonging to the terror group, below the European Hospital in Khan Younis. The military also released footage from the aftermath of the strike. The video purported to show that the IDF strike had uncovered the tunnel under the hospital, though the footage showed an adjacent school and not the medical center.
Footage posted online showed several large plumes of smoke rising from the ground around the hospital, as Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped dozens of heavy bombs. Other clips showed that the ground had collapsed in the area of the strike.
The Hamas-run health ministry reported 16 dead and over 70 wounded in the strike, though there was no immediate word if Sinwar was among the casualties.
Hours after the strike, three rockets were launched from northern Gaza to the area of Ashkelon and Sderot in southern Israel, the military said, adding that it had intercepted two rockets and the third fell in an open area. There were no injuries in the attack, which was claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.
Following the attack, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Jabalia. Writing on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, saying it was a “final warning” before the IDF carries out strikes there.
צה"ל ושב"כ השמידו תשתית טרור תת-קרקעית של ארגון הטרור חמאס מתחת לבית החולים האירופאי שבחאן יונס שבדרום רצועת עזה
מתחילת המלחמה, צה"ל ושב"כ פועלים להשמדה ונטרול של תשתיות תת-קרקע של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה.
מוקדם יותר היום, צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו באופן ממוקד מחבלים בארגון הטרור… pic.twitter.com/gdLAJOpWJ4
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 13, 2025
Security sources said the military was working to confirm if the assassination attempt against Muahmmad Sinwar was successful. If Sinwar was indeed in the tunnel, as the military’s intelligence indicated, he was likely killed, the sources said, adding that there was a small window of opportunity for the strike.
The IDF said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, including by using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
“The Hamas terror organization continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terror purposes, cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital,” the military said.
Several hours after the initial attack, Palestinian media reported additional strikes in the area of the hospital, in what appeared to be an attempt by the IDF to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel where Sinwar was targeted.
???? مشاهد أخرى للحزام الناري الذي استهدف المستشفى الأوروبي في #خان_يونس جنوب قطاع #غزة. pic.twitter.com/M5C7hvKddI
— عربي بوست (@arabic_post) May 13, 2025
Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander, is the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in southern Gaza last October.
Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after Sinwar’s older brother was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials have described Muhammad Sinwar as obstinate with regard to negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages, and an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire deal.
The younger Sinwar is also wanted for terrorist actions against Israel and has been active in Hamas for decades.
He was jailed by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Palestinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000. In 2006, Sinwar was part of a Hamas cell that abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
#عاجل استهداف المستشفى الأوروبي جنوب خان يونس بحرام ناري pic.twitter.com/vCHHtNFlB5
— Khaled Safi ???????? خالد صافي (@KhaledSafi) May 13, 2025
Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war, which was sparked when the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
On Tuesday, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that an overnight strike killed Hassan Eslaiah, who had joined and recorded the shock assault. The security forces said he was a Hamas operative “operating under the guise of a journalist.”
The statement followed Palestinian reports that Eslaiah had been killed in the strike on Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, a month after he had survived a previous Israeli targeting.
Eslaiah, whose freelance photography was distributed around the world for the Associated Press, had photographed Gazans, some of them armed, as they stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of the population was slaughtered or kidnapped, including the elderly and children as young as nine months old.
He also took a picture of Gazans atop a burning tank next to the destroyed Gaza border fence. A video from the scene posted to social media and since deleted showed him next to the tank; no press credentials could be seen on him.
The IDF said last month that he was a member of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
Last month, the IDF announced that it had targeted Eslaiah in an airstrike, but he managed to survive. Palestinian media reported that he was receiving medical care at Nasser Hospital from injuries sustained in the previous strike when he was killed.
Both the AP and CNN said in November 2023 that they had severed their relationship with Eslaiah after a pro-Israel watchdog raised questions about their work with the photographer and other journalists who entered Israel during the massacre.
Israel has repeatedly alleged that journalists killed in strikes were actually terror operatives who posed as reporters; it maintains that Hamas uses hospitals, schools, shelters, and aid infrastructure as cover for terror activities.
Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.
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