Mohammed Sinwar

Mohammed Sinwar (محمد السنوار, born September 16, 1975), is a leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip. His brother is the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar. He spent several years in Israeli jails in the 1990s and became the leader of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade in 2005. He has been subject to several assassination attempts by Israel.

Early life
Mohammed Sinwar was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in 1975. Sinwar's family grandparents fled from Al-Majdal Asqalan (Ashkelon) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He joined the military movement of Hamas in 1991.

Military career
In 2005, Sinwar became the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis brigade. He was a participant in the abduction of Gilad Shalit in 2006. Shalit was eventually released in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, one of whom was his brother Yahya Sinwar.

Mohammed Sinwar was subject to six assassination attempts by Israel in the past, with the most recent being in May 2021. Hamas had announced that he had died in 2014 during the Israel-Gaza War but this was later found out to be incorrect information. Sinwar had presumably been hiding in the tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip.

In 2023, Mohammed Sinwar is believed by Israeli intelligence to be one of the masterminds of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7. Israel has made him one of the most wanted men in its military operation in Gaza, placing a $300,000 bounty on information of Mohammed Sinwar's whereabouts. He was reportedly a close confidant of his brother, Yahya Sinwar, during the war.