By Ronen Zvulun
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Reuters) -The Israeli army said on Sunday it had retrieved the body of Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Sinwar in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza, following a targeted operation last month.
Another senior Hamas leader, Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other militants, who are still being identified, said IDF spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.
Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which Defrin said was a major command and control compound for Hamas.
“This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again,” said Defrin.
“We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar’s death last month, but Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him.
Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana.
Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and which triggered the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Shabana was one of Hamas’s most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids.
DESTRUCTION
The drive to Khan Younis in Israeli military vehicles showed widespread devastation, with countless buildings lying in ruins, and piles of rubble collected at the roadside.
The Israeli military has raided or besieged numerous hospitals during the war, alleging that Hamas uses them to conceal fighters and orchestrate operations — a charge Hamas has repeatedly denied. While Israel has presented evidence in certain cases, some of its assertions remain unverified.
Defrin said the army had carefully planned the strike near the European Hospital in order not to damage it.
A large trench dug infront of the Emergency Room entrance led down to a hole in the claustrophobic, concrete tunnel, that was used as a hideaway by Hamas fighters, the army said.
During the search of the site, Israeli forces recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.
“We will dismantle Hamas because we cannot live with this terror organisation right in our backyard, right across our border,” Defrin said.
More than 54,000 Palestinians have died during the ongoing Israeli assault, according to Gaza health authorities. The U.N. has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine.
(Writing by Crispian BalmerEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
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