Israeli officials believe Mohammed Sinwar, brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed Wednesday, could be next in line for the top job, multiple Israeli media outlets reported on Friday.

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the possible next head of the terrorist organization plaguing the Gaza Strip, but according to outlets citing the IDF, the younger brother is expected to take over political responsibilities for Hamas. 

Mohammed Sinwar, 13 years younger than his notorious brother Yahya Sinwar, was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in 1975 after his family was originally displaced following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Growing up in the shadow of one of the founders of Hamas and his subsequent arrest in 1991 over suspected terrorist activities, enabled Mohammed Sinwar to form close ties with top officials in the terrorist organization that remain alive today, the Jerusalem Post reported. 

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Despite the public’s relatively little knowledge of the younger Sinwar, his operational experience in Hamas allegedly made him one of the IDF’s most targeted terrorists of the group.

“You won’t find a key event in Hamas’s military buildup over the past 25 years in which Mohammed Sinwar wasn’t involved,” one military source told the Jerusalem Post. 

Israeli security officials reportedly said that Mohammed Sinwar is believed to be even more ruthless than his better-known older brother. Describing him as an “arch-terrorist” and pointing to his direct involvement in the torturous interrogations and deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to gain knowledge of how the IDF and Shin Bet – Israel’s security agency – operate. 

“No one in Hamas understands Israel’s covert operational patterns better than him. He conducted all the interrogations himself, learning everything from start to finish,” one official told the media outlet.

But despite concerns over the ruthless tendencies of the expected new Hamas leader, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Friday said the death of Yahya Sinwar could be an “extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire.”

“We’ll see how things evolve,” he said from a NATO summit in Brussels when asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to continue fighting in Gaza. “But clearly there are opportunities for a change in direction, and we would hope that, you know, parties would take advantage of that, both in Lebanon [and] in Gaza.”

But despite Austin’s hopeful tone and a meeting reportedly to be held Friday by Netanyahu on the 101 hostages still in Gaza, Hamas has said that the hostages will not be exchanged until Israel stops its offensive.

Israeli reports also suggested that the IDF does not believe the threat posed by Hamas will be effectively eliminated until Hama’s hierarchical structure is eliminated. 

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While Mohammed Sinwar is expected to take over as the next leader of Hamas, the remainder of other top officials in the terrorist organization mean that the group continues to pose a threat.

Khalil Al-Hayya, who led the indirect ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel and was reportedly in Tehran when longtime Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July, also served as Yahya Sinwar’s deputy and is believed to remain a major player in the terrorist organization. 

Khaled Meshaal, who led Hamas between 2004 and 2017 and now resides in Qatar according to Reuters, was listed as an official potentially under consideration following the assassination of Haniyeh, though a report in August suggested that the oldest Sinwar brother was opposed to his reappointment to the top job.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior official in Hamas and one of the group’s founders, was also assessed to be on the short list for the top job after Yahya Sinwar was killed. He reportedly survived two assassination attempts in 1992 and 2003, though Reuters has said that he has not been seen since the October 7, 2023 attacks.

Mohammad Shabana remains one of the most senior veteran commanders in the terrorist groups and reportedly heads a battalion in Rafah. He also played a significant role in developing the tunnels used to attack Israel during the 2006 conflict. 

Several other officials were detailed in reporting by Reuters as top Hamas officials who would be critical in dismantling the terrorist network, though neither their whereabouts nor their deaths have been officially confirmed by Hamas.