As we wrote earlier on Saturday, in a developing story on the latest in a string of Hamas leaders eliminated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of our Middle Eastern ally, my colleague Ward Clark reported that "On Saturday, the IDF announced, on its official X account, that they have changed another head of Hamas' pronouns to 'was' and 'were,'" and included their post:

Clark also shared the fact that earlier in the week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rattled off a list of the terror group's leaders his nation's military eliminated during the Israel-Hamas war, which includes that of the de facto leader of Hamas, Mohammad Sinwar.

READ MORE: Israel Defense Forces: 'We Eliminated the Head of Hamas, Again'

Now, there's an update, filling in some more plot points on what we know about the Hamas leader--and why Israel highlighted that his surname happened to be "Sinwar."

The reason is simple: Muhammad Sinwar was related to the last Hamas terror leader Israel killed -- he was Yahya Sinwar's younger brother. And like Yahya, this Sinwar was thought to be an integral member of the cabal that planned the heinous Oct. 7 attack. 

Fittingly, Yahya Sinwar was taken out by the IDF on Oct. 17, 2024, just days after the one-year anniversary of that attack on Israel, as RedState wrote.

The IDF confirmed that the younger brother died in airstrikes they made in Gaza earlier in May:

The Israeli military announced on Saturday night that it had killed Muhammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’s top military commanders in Gaza, during airstrikes this month that targeted the vicinity of a hospital in southern Gaza.

...

Mr. Sinwar’s death would leave the hierarchy of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza unclear. Another senior Hamas militant, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, is believed to command the group’s remaining fighters in northern Gaza.

...

This month, Israeli aircraft struck an underground compound near the European Hospital, close to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Mr. Sinwar had recently been present, according to the Israeli military. At the time, Israeli officials said privately that they had been targeting Mr. Sinwar, but they did not mention him in their announcement of the strikes.

READ MORE: Hamas Lies, Israel Dismisses, America Disappointed, No Breakthrough

Included in the NY Times story linked above is a mini-bio of Mohammad Sinwar, and some background on why Israel may have had a good idea where he was hiding:

Born in Khan Younis, where his family had fled from what is now Ashkelon, in Israel, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Mr. Sinwar followed his older brother into Hamas, ultimately rising through the group’s leadership to its very pinnacle.

...

Mr. Sinwar was an elusive figure who spent much of his life in hiding. He is believed to have spent much of the war underground in an effort to escape Israeli airstrikes. But in recent months, he had been seen aboveground in Khan Younis, including at Nasser Hospital, according to a Middle Eastern intelligence official.

In late 2023, the Israeli military said that it had searched his office in a raid on a Hamas military post in Gaza, “where military doctrine documents were located.”

Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, name-checked Izz al-Din al-Haddad and Khalil al-Hayya, two senior Hamas leaders who are thought to be the next in the potential chain of command to take over as leader, in a statement released Saturday evening. 

He warned the potential successors to the Sinwar brothers: “You are next in line" to be taken out. 

While we've been keeping tabs on the process, it's not clear what effect, if any, this latest move might have on the Israel-Hamas war, and prospects for an end to it. 

At the time of this writing, there was no response from Hamas to the report of Mohammed Sinwar's death.

As this is a developing story, RedState will provide updates as they become available.

Editor’s Note: Every single day, here at RedState, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.

Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its major wins. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.