Israel says Mohammed Sinwar's body found in Gaza tunnel

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Israel's military said on Sunday that it had identified the body of former Hamas military chief Mohammed Sinwar, who was killed in an air strike on a hospital in Gaza last month.

An Israeli army statement said the body was found in an "underground tunnel route" beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis. It said documents including Mr Sinwar's driving licence were found at the site.

Israel said he was hiding in an underground "command and control centre" at the site, an explanation it often gives for its air strikes in Gaza. It released footage of what it said was the tunnel route beneath the European Hospital.

The army said other militants were killed in the strike on May 13, and some were still being identified. One of them was said to be Mohammad Sabaneh, described by Israel as commander of a Hamas brigade in Rafah.

"During searches in the underground tunnel route, several items belonging to Sinwar and Sabaneh were located, along with additional intelligence findings that were transferred for further investigation," the army statement said. It said Israel had gathered "additional intelligence findings" that were still being examined.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on May 21 that the army had "probably killed" Mohammed Sinwar. His brother Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israel last year, was the Hamas leader believed to have masterminded the October 7 attack on Israel in 2023.

Rumours of Mohammed Sinwar's death had abounded after the hospital strike. The attack was reported to have killed 34 people, with Gaza's civil defence agency describing it as "extremely intense" and having left "catastrophic effects across the area".

Born in Khan Younis in 1975, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas as a teenager and was arrested in 1991 for suspected involvement in terrorism. He was also jailed by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah during the 1990s.

After the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Mohammad Deif, in July last year, he took charge of the group’s armed wing. And after his older brother's death, he became the de facto leader of Hamas in Gaza.