The body of Gaza leader Mohammed Sinwar was found in a Hamas tunnel, reported the Saudi agency "Al-Hadath" on Sunday morning, citing sources in Gaza. According to the agency's sources, Sinwar's body was discovered along with 10 of his aides.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Israel Katz stated in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that there are increasing signs that Gaza leader Mohammed Sinwar is dead.
Meanwhile, sources in the IDF on Sunday informed the newspaper The Jerusalem Post that they do not acknowledge foreign reports that Mohammed Sinwar's body was found along with a dozen of his aides, including the "Rafah" brigade commander Mohammed Shabanah, who planned to take the position of Hamas military leader.
It is likely that the IDF will wait for either an official Hamas announcement of Sinwar's death or its own intelligence data on his body.
Despite restraint in the official announcement of Sinwar's death, sources in the IDF already informed Jerusalem Post last week that he is most likely dead. On Tuesday, the IDF dropped a large number of bombs on a shelter in a tunnel under a hospital in Gaza to strike Sinwar.
Mohammed Sinwar leads Hamas and specifically controls the remaining 58 Israeli hostages (about 21 of whom are believed to be alive) since mid-October 2024, following the death of his brother Yahya Sinwar.
Thus, of the five pre-war Hamas brigade commanders, only the commander of the Gaza City brigade, Az-edin-al-Haddad, will remain alive, making him the next military head of Hamas.
Reports from the Gaza Strip state that Zakaria Sinwar, the brother of Yahya and Mohammed Sinwar, was also killed along with his sons after an airstrike on the tent where they were sheltering in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.