The enigmatic figure of Hamas in Gaza, Mohammed but, whose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday, May 28, approved one of the last high -level leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement that is still active in the Gaza Strip.
“We have persecuted the terrorists of our territory, he entered strongly into the Gaza Strip, we eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists, eliminated (…) Mohammed but,” said Benjamin Netanyahu during a session in Parliament.
This announcement is the result of a strike ordered on May 13, by the Israeli army, in a Hamas Command and Control Center, located according to Israel “in a terrorist underground infrastructure, under the European hospital of Khan Younès”, south of the Gaza Strip.
• Lou, brother of the old Supreme Head of Hamas
Mohammed Sinouar was born in Khan Younis in 1975. He was first known by his last name, because he is the brother of Yahya SinuarFormer Hamas Chief, killed by the Israeli army in October 2024 in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The latter was portrayed as the main architect of the unprecedented attack in Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which caused the Israeli response and the new war in Gaza.
While his brother, Yahya but to, is being held in an Israeli prison, Mohammed but is accused by Israel of being one of the kidnaps of the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. The Israeli host Times
Nicknamed “The Shadow” or “The Ghost”, Mohammed but made almost no public appearance, even during his father’s funeral in 2022, several Palestinian media cited by AFP report. According to the New York Times, he has escaped six murder attempts since 2021.
• High leader of Hamas’ armed branch
Since the death of his brother Yahya, Mohammed Sinuar was presented in the Israeli media as one of the main leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to experts of the Islamist movement interviewed by AFP, the man has been directing the armed branch of Hamas since 2005, the Al-Qassam brigades, considered in the same way as their political movement, as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union in particular.
After the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of the Brigades, in July 2024, Mohammed but would have taken the initiative of all or part of the combatants, at least in the south of the Gaza Strip, to avoid a vacancy of power and before Hamas governs over his successor.
But the movement, in particular its armed branch, is still protected by a culture worthy of an intelligence service. “The name of the Al-Qassam chief will remain a secret,” recently a source close to the brigades.
Some commentators believe that Mohammed Sinuar did not have the broader authority that Yahya enjoyed. Amos Harel, security analyst of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, writes that he shared “management responsibilities in Gaza with Az al-Din al-Haddad, a commander whose power base is in the north of the band.”
• A hard and uncompromising man
Citing several anonymous sources, Wall Street Journal said that Mohammed but had helped recruit many new combatants and advocated a hard line in indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel to reach a truce. When attacking him, the Israeli army could expect to get rid of a particularly uncompromising negotiator.
In a rare interview with Al Jazeera in 2021, Mohammed but, then a great commander of the Military Wing of Hamas said: “For us, shooting rockets in Tel Aviv is easier than drinking water,” reports the New York Times. At the time of his death, he had accumulated 30 years of military experience, according to American media.
Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a commander of the Al-Qassam brigades, of which Mohammed but was the leader, described him as “a monster, the bad police” in a newspaper he had in the cell, reports the world.
Fallen out of disgrace after being accused of homosexuality by Hamas, Mahmoud Ishtiwi executed three bullets in the chest in February 2016. Homosexuality is a responsible crime before death before the religious courts of Hamas.
After the attack of October 7 by Hamas, which led to the death of 1,218 Israeli, mostly civilians, according to an AFP statement, Benjamin Netanayahu has sworn to destroy the Islamist movement present in Gaza.
In total, more than 54,084 Palestinians, mainly civil, were killed by the Israeli retaliation campaign, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
Source: BFM TV
