The Israeli prime minister said on Wednesday that Mohammed Sinuar, head of one of the most wanted and younger brother of the deceased leader of the organization, Yahia Sinuar, has been exterminated.
Mohammed Sinuar rose to the leadership team of the Palestinian armed organization last year, after Israel killed his brother, Yama, in a battle during the ongoing war in Gaza.
Yahhi Sinuar was the brain of the October 2023 attack on Israel who triggered the war and later declared a general leader of the organization, following the assassination of Ismail Haniye’s predecessor from Israel to Iran.
Yama Sinuar
Mohammed Sinuar was born in Han Younes in 1975. Their family fled the area today is Ascelon, in Israel, in a refugee camp in Han Younes during the 1948 war.
The younger Sinuar allegedly joined Hamas in the late 1980s or early 1990s, at a time when Yaia came to the ranks of the organization. In 1991, he was arrested by the Israeli army on charges of terrorism and spent less than a year in custody.
He was also imprisoned for several years in the 1990s in Ramala by the Palestinian Authority.
He is known for the nickname “The Shadow”.
By 2021, he allegedly had been targeted by six failed attempts to assassinate. In 2014, the Israeli army believed he had killed Mohammed Sinuar, but was eventually found to survive. At the end of 2023, the Israeli army announced over social networks that it had invaded its office during a military -based military base and a Hamas training center in Gaza, where military documents were found.
However, both Sinuar brothers were able to escape Israel, until Yahia, then Hamas’ political leader, was killed by the Israeli army in October.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in 2022, it was reported that Mohammed was so invisible that most of the residents of Gaza would not recognize him, and did not appear publicly at his father’s funeral in order to keep his location secret.
It is believed to have passed most of the war in underground shelters to avoid Israeli bombings. However, in recent months, it had been found again in Han Younes, including at Nasser Hospital, according to a Middle Eastern intelligence official.
Is associated with the kidnapping of Gilad Salit
Israel has accused Mohammed Sinuar of being one of those responsible for planning the attack that led to the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Salit in 2006.
Salit was arrested along the border with Israel and held a prisoner in Gaza for five years.
Salit was released in 2011 in an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Among what was released was Yama Sinuar.
In 2022, Mohammed Sinuar told Al Jazeera that he believed that such exchanges could contribute to the release of thousands of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. The following year, Hamas kidnapped about 250 hostages from Israel and transported them to Gaza to be used as negotiating weapons in future talks.
