A video clip from an IDF video released Saturday showing the body of Muhammad Sinwar lying on his bed in the tunnel under the European Hospital in Khan Younis (IDF video)
Muhammad Sinwar's body lies on a bed, likely having died from suffocation

In a dramatic and high-stakes operation, the Israel Defense Forces have uncovered the body of senior Hamas military commander Mohammed Sinwar in a fortified tunnel complex buried beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis. The revelation, first reported by i24NEWS and later confirmed by the IDF, underscores Israel’s ongoing campaign to dismantle the terror infrastructure embedded within civilian institutions in Gaza.

A Tunnel of Terror Under a Hospital

On Saturday night, the IDF released harrowing footage from a sprawling underground command center concealed beneath the European Hospital — a supposedly humanitarian facility used as a shield for Hamas’s war machine. The subterranean complex featured a fully operational command-and-control hub, weapons caches, communications systems, and intelligence materials — all components of a terror nerve center once used by top Hamas operatives.

Among the bodies discovered during the operation was that of Mohammed Sinwar, a high-ranking Hamas leader and brother of the terror organization’s now-deceased political chief, Yahya Sinwar. This finding contradicts earlier Palestinian claims that Sinwar’s body had been retrieved and secretly reburied elsewhere by Hamas loyalists.

The IDF has now confirmed that it is in possession of the remains of both Sinwar brothers — Yahya and Mohammed — signaling a symbolic and strategic collapse of the Hamas leadership that orchestrated the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

The Hunt Beneath the Hospital

Roughly three weeks before the discovery, Israel launched a concentrated air and ground campaign targeting the area around the European Hospital. Intelligence indicated that the hospital’s lower levels housed a Hamas headquarters — a pattern seen repeatedly across the Strip, where terror leaders exploit medical infrastructure to evade detection.

This week, as elite IDF units continued combing through the complex tunnel network in Khan Younis, they discovered several bodies of Hamas operatives, including the pivotal figure of Mohammed Sinwar.

“The IDF’s exposure of this tunnel network — hidden beneath a functioning hospital — is further proof of Hamas’s systematic abuse of humanitarian sites,” a military spokesperson stated. “This space was not only a command post but a graveyard of terror.”

Sinwar’s Rise and Fall

Mohammed Sinwar was a long-serving commander in Hamas's military wing and was directly involved in the planning and execution of the October 7 atrocities, which marked the bloodiest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. Following the assassination of top military chief Mohammed Deif, Sinwar was promoted to lead Hamas’s operational efforts by his brother, Yahya Sinwar — the organization’s figurehead.

A known architect of Hamas’s military resurgence following previous Israeli operations, Sinwar had played a key role in rebuilding the group’s capabilities, expanding its tunnel networks, and forging its operational alliances with Iran’s regional proxies.

His death — now confirmed by Israeli forces — represents a major blow to the terror group’s ability to reorganize, both tactically and symbolically.

A Leadership in Collapse

The discovery of Mohammed Sinwar’s body adds to a growing list of top Hamas commanders eliminated during the ongoing war, now stretching beyond 600 days. In the same May 13 airstrike that damaged the tunnel, the IDF also neutralized Muhammad Shabana, commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, and Mahdi Quara, head of the South Khan Younis Battalion.

With the Sinwar brothers gone, Deif eliminated, and much of the senior leadership either killed or in hiding, Hamas’s command structure has been decimated. What remains is a fragmented organization struggling to regroup under constant Israeli pressure.

Hospitals as Human Shields: A Pattern of Depravity

This operation is the latest in a series of IDF exposures revealing Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals across Gaza. From Shifa to Nasser to the European Hospital, medical centers have been weaponized by Hamas — not only as hideouts but as operational centers from which terror is directed and civilians are used as human shields.

“Throughout the war, the IDF repeatedly exposed the use of hospitals across the Gaza Strip by the Hamas terror organization for terror activity and as hiding places for senior members of Hamas’s military wing,” the military said. 

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