IDF, Shin Bet confirm Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar killed in May 13 strike on tunnel under south Gaza hospital

Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tunnel underneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on May 13, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.

The strike also killed Muhammad Shabana, commander of the terror group’s Rafah Brigade, and Mahdi Quara, commander of the South Khan Younis Battalion, the joint statement says.

“The terrorists were eliminated while operating in an underground command and control center, under the European Hospital in Khan Younis, deliberately endangering the civilian population in and around the hospital,” the IDF says.

The IDF says it carried out “extensive intelligence measures… “to enable a precise strike that would mitigate civilian harm to the greatest extent possible.”

Muhammed Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander, is the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

The IDF describes him as “among the most senior and long-serving members of Hamas’s military wing,” adding that he “played a significant role in planning and executing the brutal October 7 massacre, serving as chief of operations at the time.”

Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after his older brother was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Sinwar previously served as the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade and the head of Hamas’s military operations division. He was also involved in the abduction of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.

Shabana, according to the IDF, “was one of the planners and executors of the brutal October 7 massacre and oversaw the captivity of many hostages in southern Gaza.”