GAZA CITY, Palestine

Hamas announced on Friday evening that Mahmoud Hamdan, also known as “Abu Yusuf,” who served as the commander of the Al-Sultan Brigade in Rafah, was killed alongside the group’s slain leader Yahya Sinwar.

The movement said in a statement that Hamdan was killed while actively engaging with the Israeli army, reportedly alongside Sinwar.

Earlier on Friday, Hamas confirmed the death of Yahya Sinwar, the head of the movement’s political bureau, in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

In a televised statement, Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya praised Sinwar as a “hero who fought the Israeli forces until his last breath.”

He also stressed that Israeli hostages “will not be released until the complete cessation of Israeli aggression in Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas, through Hayya, reiterated its “commitment to continuing its struggle until the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Israeli army said Thursday that it had killed Sinwar in a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

On Aug. 6, Hamas appointed Sinwar, also referred to as “Abu Ibrahim,” as the head of its political bureau, succeeding Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on July 31 in an attack attributed to Israel, although Israel has not officially acknowledged its involvement.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

At least 42,500 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 99,500 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.