A surprising power shift inside Hamas
Its remaining hard men inside Gaza are losing their grip

THE NARROW tunnel still reeked of decomposing bodies. A section was blocked by rubble created by two Israeli air strikes on May 13th. Israeli troops opened the tunnel only when they reached the spot, at the entrance to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, nearly four weeks later. Five bodies were found in an underground room beneath the emergency ward of the main hospital in Gaza’s second-largest city. On June 8th one was identified as that of Muhammad Sinwar, the military chief of Hamas.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A surprising shift within Hamas”

From the June 14th 2025 edition
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