Cnn
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Israel has targeted Hamas head of Hamas Mohammad Sinwar in a strike in a hospital in the south of Gaza on Tuesday evening, according to a senior Israeli official and two sources familiar with the problem.
He became the de facto chief of the militant group after the Israeli army killed his brother, Yahya Sinwar, last October.
The Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) said that it had strike at the European Hospital of Khan Younis, targeting the “terrorists in Hamas in a command and control center” in underground infrastructure under the hospital. The FDI has not identified the target of the strike.
Several air strikes hit the hospital courtyard, according to Dr. Saleh Al Hams, head of nursing. Some people are buried under the rubble, he said, calling him “a disaster”. The medical teams tried to move patients to safe units inside the hospital.
The video of the scene has shown imposing pillars of smoke and dust of what seemed to be some of the biggest strikes in Gaza in recent weeks.
Sinwar targeting occurs one day after Hamas has released Israeli American Edan Alexander in what was a goodwill gesture for the United States. The agreement for a single publication of a hostage sidelined Israel, while Hamas communicated with the Trump administration.
The United States has expressed some optimism about the negotiations that should take place in Qatar with President Donald Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff in the Middle East. Before leaving Israel, Witkoff has promised families of hostages that he “would be relentless in this pursuit”.
But with negotiations about to start in Doha – and with an Israeli team on the way – Sinwar targeting means that Israel has just tried to kill the key decision -maker of the Hamas necessary to seal any potential agreement.
Israeli officials considered Mohammad Sinwar just as hard as his brother, Yahya, but much more militarily experienced. According to the IDF, he ordered the Khan Younis brigade until 2016. Like Yahya, he would be one of the main planners of the October 7 terrorist attack against Israel.
Since the start of the war, he has remained hidden, as well as many senior Hamas leaders in Gaza. In December 2023, the FDI published a video of what they said to be Mohammad Sinwar who crossed a tunnel in Gaza. In February 2024, the FDI said it had located its office in western Khan Younis.
Former American ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said Sinwar was probably an obstacle in negotiations. “There is little chance that war will end before dying,” a principal researcher at the Atlantic Council told CNN Shapiro. “His dismissal could open the door to the release of all hostages and start heading for a post-war future for Gaza without Hamas.”
This is a story in development and will be updated.
