Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Israel had killed Muhammad Sinwar, the presumed leader of Hamas in Gaza and the brother of slain former chief Yahya Sinwar. Muhammad Sinwar’s death has not yet been publicly confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces or by Hamas.

Muhammad Sinwar was targeted in a series of Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis on May 13 on an underground command center belonging to the terror group, below the European Hospital.

While Defense Minister Israel Katz previously said “all indications” pointed to Sinwar having perished, Netanyahu’s comments were the first time Israel definitively said he had died.

At Wednesday’s Knesset debate, Netanyahu said, “Many feared that we would not rise from October 7, but within just two days, I said that we were going to change the Middle East. We repelled the terrorists, we eliminated [Hamas leaders Mohammad] Deif, [Ismail] Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Sinwar.”

According to Saudi channel Al-Hadath, Muhammad Sinwar’s body was found two weeks ago along with the remains of 10 of his aides.

The report said that there was evidence that the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, was also killed in the strike.

Hamas has not confirmed the matter.

Before the strike, Sinwar had 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 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that led to the war in Gaza. Yahya Sinwar was himself named overall Hamas leader after Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran during the war.

Muhammad Sinwar’s death would leave his close associate Izz al-Din Haddad, who currently oversees operations in northern Gaza, in charge of Hamas’s armed wing across the whole of the enclave.

It is unclear how his death would affect decision-making in the group in ceasefire negotiations.

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

The Sinwars originally came from Asqalan — now the Israeli port city of Ashkelon — and became refugees like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians in what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, when the nascent Israeli state came under attack by multiple Arab armies.

The family settled in Khan Younis in Gaza, and was educated in schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Muhammad 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.

He was jailed by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Palestinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000.

Like his brother Yahya, Sinwar 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 Muhammad Sinwar’s house, foiling an assassination attempt that the group blamed on Israeli intelligence.

Known for clandestine operations, Sinwar was 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, including Muhammad’s older brother Yahya, who was in jail for terror offenses at the time.

He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.

The Hamas sources said Muhammad Sinwar also played an important role in planning the October 7 attack.