Israel reveals tunnel under Gaza hospital where body of Sinwar’s brother was found

KHAN YOUNIS: 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 member, 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.“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.Hamas has not commented on reports of the death of either Sinwar or Shabana.Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s deceased leader and mastermind of the Oct 2023 attack on Israel. Shabana played a key role in constructing the network of tunnels under Rafah. During the search of the site, Israeli forces also recovered weapon stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.Credit: Reuters