The strike that targeted and possibly eliminated Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar in Gaza earlier this month was made possible when the terror chief made the rare mistake of moving without a defensive “hostage belt” protecting him, according to a Friday report.
Channel 12 aired new details on the massive strike on Sinwar and other top Hamas officials in a Khan Younis tunnel on May 13 that is currently believed to have killed Sinwar, the de facto commander of Hamas in Gaza, following Israel’s killing of his brother Yahya last October.
The network said Muhammad Sinwar was almost always surrounded by hostages throughout the war, as Hamas leaders realized this was a strong deterrent against Israeli assassination attempts. And indeed, Channel 12 said Israeli intelligence had long tracked Sinwar but repeatedly ruled out potential strikes on him when presented with the opportunity due to fears there were hostages in his vicinity.
“No risks are taken if there’s even a one percent chance that hostages are in the area,” a security source told the network.
The report said Sinwar became even more careful following the death of his brother in a firefight with Israeli forces, and that only a very small number of people knew his location at any time, echoing a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.
However, for unknown reasons, Sinwar decided on May 13 to meet with the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, as well as other senior commanders, without his usual escort of hostages.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Hamas and Arab officials who said the meeting of tap-ranking Hamas figures was convened to discuss their approach to talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal, among other matters.
Presented with this opportunity, the Israeli Air Force immediately began preparing for a strike, the report said, though top officers expected it would likely be called off due to fears of harming hostages.
A screenshot of an undated video released by the Israel Defense Forces on December 17, 2023, shows Hamas commander Muhammad Sinwar, right, riding in a car traveling through a tunnel under the Gaza Strip. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)
However, when ironclad intelligence arrived that no hostages were present, the IAF was given the green light, jets were scrambled, and the bombing went ahead.
The strikes targeted an underground command compound below the European Hospital. The Hamas-run health ministry reported 16 dead and over 70 wounded in the strike, though there was no immediate word if Sinwar was among the casualties.
The IDF later bombed the area several more times, in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel and aiding the terror operatives.
According to the officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, Hamas recovered Sinwar’s body a day after the strike and temporarily buried it in another tunnel, with the intention of moving his remains to a more suitable grave once the fighting ceases.
Saudi channel Al-Hadath reported that Sinwar’s body was was recovered along with the remains of 10 of his aides. Hamas has not confirmed this.
Israel has also not confirmed that Sinwar was killed, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “according to all the indications Muhammad Sinwar was eliminated.”
Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after Sinwar’s older brother Yahya was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Strip.
People near the site of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
Israeli officials have described Muhammad Sinwar as obstinate concerning negotiations for the release of hostages, and an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire deal.
The younger Sinwar was also wanted for terrorist actions against Israel and has been active in Hamas for decades.
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. In 2006, Sinwar was part of the Hamas cell that abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.
Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war, which was sparked when the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
On Thursday, Palestinian media reported that Zakaria Sinwar, brother of Yahya and Muhammad Sinwar, succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday night.
Zakaria, a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza, was initially said to have been killed in the strike, but media reports later said he had been critically injured.
Nurit Yohanan and Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
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