(New York, NY) - On May 28, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the death of the military leader of Hamas in Gaza Muhammad Sinwar, killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a command center beneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza. Despite no official recognition from the Hamas Temporary Committee, the five-man leadership council established in July 2024, Sinwar assumed leadership of Hamas in Gaza succeeding his older brother, Yahya Sinwar, himself killed in October 2024. He played a key role in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, which eventually led to the release of more than 1,000 Israeli-held prisoners, including Sinwar’s elder brother, in exchange for the Israeli soldier. Muhammad Sinwar is the fourth major Hamas leader to be eliminated by Israel since the October 7 attack—of which he is believed to have known about in advance—along with Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh.
CEP Senior Research Analyst Josh Lipowsky
The death of Muhammad Sinwar is a major blow to Hamas’s control of Gaza. Since March, this year we have seen growing protests in Gaza against Hamas rule as Gazans recognize Hamas’s responsibility for all of the destruction that has befallen the area. While overseeing Gaza from the safety of Qatar and Turkey, Hamas leaders have repeatedly said that they value the war against Israel more than they value the lives of Gazans. Speaking from abroad, Hamas’s leaders have dismissed Gazans’ suffering as service to the larger fight against Israel. Hamas has also openly admitted that it is more interested in hurting Israel however it can rather than improving the lives of ordinary Gazans. In March, after he called the war with Israel “eternal,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri declared that Gazans would continue having babies to replace their “martyrs.” His atrocious comments sparked the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza as Gazans accused Hamas of selling their blood to continue their bloody and costly war. After the death of Sinwar, Hamas’s highest-level official in Gaza, the likelihood that Hamas will continue to dictate Gaza’s future from abroad will hopefully further fuel Gazans’ anger against Hamas and lead to the internal overthrow of this terrorist regime.
CEP Managing Director (U.S.) Daniel Roth
The elimination of Muhammad Sinwar may lead to further internal dispute, if not outright power struggle, between its “politburo”—until recently, officially based in Qatar—and the al-Qassam Brigades military wing still operating in Gaza, where Sinwar was de facto leader. Nonetheless, one strong contender for overall control is Khalil al-Hayya, a familiar face on television as a regular Hamas spokesman and chief negotiator. He is currently one of the five members of the Hamas Temporary Committee, established after the assassination of politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July 2024. Like Muhammad Sinwar, al-Hayya was a loyal ally of Yahya and a candidate to succeed him in October last year. Al-Hayya, who now likely resides in either Qatar or Turkey, has already survived one assassination attempt, in 2007 and would countenance the likelihood of another if he becomes leader.
To read CEP’s Individual Report on Muhammad Sinwar, click here.
To read CEP’s Report on Khalil al-Hayya, click here.
To read CEP’s Group Report on Hamas, click here.