The Israeli army announced on Saturday evening that it had killed Muhammad Sinwar, one of the best military commanders in Hamas in Gaza, during the air strikes this month which targeted the surroundings of a hospital in southern Gaza.
Hamas did not immediately respond to the claim for the death of Mr. Sinwar. During the war in Gaza, the Palestinian armed group did not largely confirm the murder of its commanders at the moment, announcing only their weeks of disappearance, even months later, or even at all.
The death of Mr. Sinwar would leave the hierarchy of Hamas leaders in Gaza. It is believed that another superior activist of Hamas, Izz Al-Din al-Haddad, commands the remaining combatants of the group in northern Gaza.
Israel Katz, Israeli Minister of Defense, threatened Haddad on Saturday evening as well as Khalil al-Hayya, one of the leaders of Hamas in exile, saying that they would share a similar fate to Mr. Sinwar.
“You are the next online,” Katz said in a statement, addressing the two militant leaders by name.
But the death of Mr. Sinwar may not change immediately Hamas strategy or operationssaid analysts. Since the start of the war over a year and a half ago, Israel has targeted and killed a number of main leaders in Hamas, to see the group pursue its guerrilla warfare against Israel in Gaza.
This month, Israeli planes struck an underground complex near the European hospital, near the southern city of Gaza in Khan Younis, where Mr. Sinwar had recently been present, according to the Israeli army. At the time, Israeli officials declared in private that they had targeted Mr. Sinwar, but they had not mentioned it in their announcement of strikes.
