Israeli fighter jets bombarded the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday evening in an attempt to kill Muhammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’s remaining top leaders in the enclave, according to three Israeli officials.
All three officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Around the same time, the Israeli military said its forces had struck a Hamas command center underneath the European Hospital, near Khan Younis. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to say whether Mr. Sinwar was targeted in that strike.
Billowing pillars of smoke towered around the hospital following the bombardment, according to videos from the scene verified by The New York Times. It was unclear whether hospital buildings were damaged in the strike. The ministry of health in Gaza said that at least six people were killed in the strike on the hospital, with at least 40 others injured.
Saleh al-Hams, a doctor at the European Hospital, said the bombardments had shaken the compound, terrifying the doctors and patients gathered within. “All of our appeals to the world were for nothing,” he said in a phone call.
Israeli officials have accused Hamas of operating from inside Gaza’s hospitals — claims corroborated by some Palestinians in Gaza, as well as some former Israeli hostages who have said they were held there. Hamas denies the allegations, as have hospital officials.
Israel has threatened another major military offensive in the Gaza Strip unless Hamas lays down its weapons and turns over the 20 living hostages it still holds, along with the remains of around 40 others. Hamas leaders have refused to disarm, adding that they will not release the captives unless Israel ends the war.
Mr. Sinwar is believed to be one of the most senior Hamas military commanders left in the Gaza Strip after more than a year and a half of devastating war with Israel. He is the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, killed by Israeli forces last year, who masterminded the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that set off the war.
If the younger Mr. Sinwar has been killed, past experiences suggest that Hamas may be less willing to compromise in the short term, while potentially more malleable in the longer term.
Muhammad Sinwar is considered one of the main obstacles to a new temporary truce, and his killing could eventually give other Hamas leaders greater leeway to strike a deal. Two of the Israeli defense officials said that by eliminating Mr. Sinwar, they hoped to remove a particularly intransigent opponent of their conditions for a cease-fire.
But Hamas has typically avoided showing greater flexibility in the immediate aftermath of other assassinations and would be unlikely to change that approach.
After Israel killed Mr. Sinwar’s brother last October, for example, Hamas announced that its resolve had been strengthened. Three months later, the group agreed to a truce.
It could be some time before there is clarity about Muhammad Sinwar’s fate. Throughout this war, the Israeli military has often taken weeks to confirm a target’s death, while Hamas has sometimes taken months to do so. Israel announced the death of Muhammad Deif, Hamas’s military leader, last August — more than two weeks after killing him in a strike in July. Hamas did not acknowledge Mr. Deif’s fate until January.
Inside Hamas, Mr. Sinwar is considered a hard-liner who has opposed compromises with Israel in cease-fire negotiations, according to the two Israeli officials and a Middle Eastern intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
He adamantly opposed compromises on Hamas’s weapons, a position that put him at odds with some members of the militant group’s leadership outside Gaza, the Middle Eastern official added. Mr. Sinwar had also rejected Israeli offers of exile from Gaza as part of a truce, the official said.
Julian E. Barnes, Aric Toler and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
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