IDF says it killed top Hamas commander responsible for guarding Sinwar; IDF had previously thought him dead

The commander of Hamas’s Tel Sultan Battalion, Mahmoud Hamdan, was not killed several weeks ago as the IDF had announced at the time, but rather, he was killed earlier today, the military announces.

According to the IDF, Hamdan was responsible for guarding Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the six Israeli hostages who were murdered by their captors in Rafah in late August.

“A few weeks ago it was determined that [Hamdan] was most likely eliminated, following intelligence information. Today we understand that the intelligence finding on which his death was based was not accurate enough,” the IDF says.

The army says Hamdan continued to guard Sinwar since then, and earlier today, troops of the Bislamach Brigade killed him in an exchange of fire, around 200 meters from the site where the Hamas leader was killed on Wednesday.