IDF Gaza Bombardment Meant to Kill Hamas Chieftain

Update: Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Yiheh, the architect of the Oct. 7th, 2023, invasion and massacre, is likely dead, IDF sources said Wednesday AM. Hamas fired rockets at Israeli cities.

The IDF has reportedly attempted to kill Hamas leader, Muhammad Sinwar, who was hiding in a command bunker located beneath the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Tuesday evening, Israel Radio reported.

Update, Wednesday morning: IDF sources told Galatz Army Radio that Sinwar was likely killed in the massive bombardment.

The army is trying to confirm the details of the hit; Hamas sources have denied that Sinwar was killed.

Update: Initial rocket alerts at about 21:30, Tuesday night, said Gazan terrorists had fired projectiles at Ashkelon, Sderot, and other civilian areas near northern Gaza.

Iron Dome defensive interceptors successfully hit two of the three rockets fired into Israel, with the third falling in an “open area,” the army said in a statement. No immediate reports of physical injuries or damage.

The target was the brother of previous Hamas chieftain, Yehieh, who was killed by IDF soldiers on Oct. 16th, 2024, in Rafah.

“Both of them are very hardline and murdered moderate Palestinians with their own hands, as well as ordering the murder of many Israelis,” UK-based reporter and commentator, Tom Gross noted in comment.

West Point military analyst, John Spencer, pointed out that “Muhammad Sinwar is not a symbolic target. He was one of the principal architects of Hamas’s war. As the brother of Yahya Sinwar—Hamas’s leader in Gaza until his reported death—and commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, Muhammad Sinwar helped plan and execute the October 7 massacre. After the death of Mohammed Deif, he assumed de facto control of Hamas’s military operations within Gaza. He also oversaw Hamas’s vast tunnel infrastructure—an underground network of more than 400 miles used to move fighters, store weapons, and shield command centers beneath civilian areas. That system is central to how Hamas wages war while hiding behind the population it claims to defend.

“If his death is confirmed, it would represent the collapse of Hamas’s top Gaza-based leadership. Hamas is not an amorphous guerrilla force. It relies on centralized planning, subterranean communications, and an integrated command structure. Eliminating Sinwar would further fracture that system and disrupt Hamas’s ability to coordinate and adapt under pressure.”

“In the attack, the Israeli Air Force used dozens of munitions, bunker-busting bombs,” according to Israel Army Radio reporter, Doron Kadosh.

Ch. 14's Almog Boker said Israel used nine one-ton bombs to hit the headquarters and tunnel complex.

“The attack was carried out along a pattern similar to the one in which Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Dahiya in Beirut: attacking all the entrances and exits at the entrances to the underground compound, in order to prevent escape after the attack, if Sinwar manages to escape,” he noted.

Gazans could be seen clambering over buckled streets, destroyed by the bunker busters underground blast wave that filled the warren of tunnels below and in the vicinity of the hospital.

The IDF is firing on Gazans trying to approach the vicinity of the multiple blasts, according to local media. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says 16 were killed and 70 wounded in the Israeli strikes.

“The method of attack combines collapse with penetrating bombs, with the goal that those who do not die at the beginning as a result of the impact and collapse will later die of suffocation (as Nasrallah may have died),” Kadosh noted.

Israel did not inform the US government before the strike, according to local media.

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