Who is Mohammad Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza declared eliminated by Israel?

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

(Reuters) -Mohammad Sinwar, the elusive Hamas chief in Gaza who Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday had been eliminated, has long been at the top of Israel's most wanted list.        

Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of Hamas in 2024 after the death in combat of his brother Yahya, mastermind of the 2023 attack on Israel that led to the war in Gaza and later named as overall Hamas leader.    

Hamas has yet to confirm Mohammad Sinwar's death, which would leave his close associate Izz al-Din Haddad, who currently oversees operations in northern Gaza, in charge of Hamas' armed wing across the whole of the enclave.

It is unclear how Mohammad Sinwar's death, if confirmed, would affect decision-making in the overall group -- for example whether his death would bolster or diminish the influence of exiled members of the group's leadership council in deciding policy in ceasefire negotiations.

Hamas officials describe Sinwar and Haddad as "ghosts" who have long outfoxed Israel's intelligence agencies.

Like his brother Yahya, Sinwar had survived many Israeli assassination attempts, including airstrikes and planted explosives, Hamas sources said. 

When Sinwar once visited a cemetery, his comrades discovered that a remote-controlled explosive resembling a brick had been planted along his path, according to the Hamas sources.

In 2003, Hamas operatives discovered a bomb planted in the wall of Mohammad Sinwar's house, foiling an assassination attempt that the group blamed on Israeli intelligence.

Known for clandestine operations, Mohammad Sinwar played a central role in planning and executing Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the country's worst security failure, Hamas sources said.

He was also widely believed to have been one of the masterminds of the 2006 cross-border attack and abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. 

Hamas held Shalit for five years before he was swapped for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel. 

Under the deal, his brother Yahya Sinwar, whose meticulous planning for the 2023 attack shattered Israel's reputation as an invincible power in a hostile region, was among those who were released.

REPUTATION AS A HARDLINER

Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate Hamas, and the offensive against Gaza by the Middle East's most sophisticated and advanced military has severely weakened the organisation. 

But the group that was created during the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 1987 and which carried out suicide bombings that traumatized Israelis in the second one, is still standing.

Born on September 15, 1975, Sinwar has rarely appeared in public or spoken to the media.

Yahya Sinwar was killed in combat during a routine Israeli patrol in Gaza in 2024.

Israel released footage of a severely wounded Yahya Sinwar throwing a piece of wood at a hovering drone, his last act of defiance towards his old foe before his death and his brother's rise. 

The Sinwars originally came from Asqalan - now the Israeli city of Ashkelon — and became refugees like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians in what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, during the birth of Israel during the 1948 war.

The family settled in Khan Younis in Gaza, which has been largely reduced to rubble in the latest war. 

Mohammad Sinwar was educated in schools run by the U.N. Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA), which has long had tense relations with Israel, including during the current war in Gaza.

He joined Hamas shortly after its founding, influenced by his brother Yahya, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest and at one time most influential Islamist group in the Middle East. 

His reputation as a hardliner helped him rise through the group's military ranks, and by 2005, he was leading Hamas's Khan Younis Brigade.

The unit, one of the largest and most powerful battalions in Hamas's armed wing, has been responsible for cross-border attacks, firing rockets and planting bombs along the frontier.

It also watches the movement of Israeli soldiers around the clock and in 2006, elite commandos led by Sinwar took part in Shalit's abduction.

Sources close to Hamas say Sinwar developed close ties with Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas's military wing, and Mohammed Deif, the aloof military chief assassinated by Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Writing by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Michael Georgy, William Maclean)