- Sinwar is the younger brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed in October 2024
Head of the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Mohammed Sinwar, has become a new Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said, citing sources.
According to the newspaper, Sinwar is the younger brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed in October 2024. He “is working to build the militant group back up,” because its combat ability has been severely crippled since the onset of Israel’s military operation in the Palestinian enclave in October 2023, the sources said.
The sources told the media outlet that after the death of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas Qatar-based office opted not to elect a new leader and decided to switch to a collective leadership. Militant groups in the Gaza Strip refused to be administered by it and are currently acting independently, led by Mohammed Sinwar. It is claimed that he was close with the head of the movement’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, who was killed in the July 2024 Israeli strike.
According to the WSJ, Mohammed Sinwar has been a long-time member of Hamas; he is currently around 50. He was greatly influenced by his older brother.
The sources told the newspaper that Mohammed Sinwar was able to evade Israeli secret services for a long time, thus gaining the nickname of “Shadow.”
Israel’s authorities think that Mohammed Sinwar was involved in organizing the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on the Jewish state as well as in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli serviceman Gilad Shalit. In 2011, in a swap for Shalit, 1,027 Hamas supporters returned to the Gaza Strip from Israeli jails, including Mohammed’s older brother Yahya Sinwar.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border settlements and seizing more than 240 hostages.
Israel launched a military operation in the enclave in response, aiming to eliminate Hamas’ military and political structures and release all hostages. On July 31, 2024, Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Israel’s surgical strike and on October 16, his successor Yahya Sinwar was killed.
