A Hamas leader who was declared dead in 2014 is alive and is among those believed to have masterminded the October 7 surprise attack on Israel, sources close to Israeli intelligence have told The Telegraph, Sky News reports. His brother Yahya Sinwa is the leader of Hamas in Gaza and Israel’s most wanted terrorist.

As sources told The Telegraph, Mohammed Sinwar lived in tunnels under Gaza for years and allegedly took an active part in planning the attacks on Israel on October 7.

According to Sky News, the former Mossad chief said Sinwar was “100 percent” part of the core team that planned the attacks.

Hamas declared Mohammed Sinwar dead in 2014, even releasing a photo of him lying on his back with blood all over him. He has not been seen in public since then, but was spotted in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic last May.

Mohammed Sinwar is the brother of Yahya Sinwa, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was arrested several times by Israel and spent a total of almost 24 years in prison. He was one of more than a thousand prisoners released by Israel in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in Gaza for five years.

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What is Hamas?

• Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, was founded in 1987 during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising. It is backed by Shiite Iran and shares the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the 1920s.

• Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 after a brief civil war with forces loyal to Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after it won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, the last time they were held. Hamas accused Abbas of conspiring against him. Abbas called what happened a coup.

Since then, there have been many rounds of conflict with Israel, often involving Hamas rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and Israeli airstrikes and bombing of Gaza.

• Hamas refuses to recognize the state of Israel and strongly opposes the Oslo peace accords signed by Israel and the PLO in the mid-1990s.

• Hamas has an armed wing called the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades that sends armed fighters and suicide bombers to Israel. Hamas characterizes its armed activities as resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Its 1988 founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although Hamas leaders have sometimes offered a long-term truce (or Khudna in Arabic) with Israel in exchange for a viable Palestinian state in all Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel considers it a ruse.

• Israel, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan have recognized Hamas as a terrorist organization.

• Hamas is part of a regional alliance that includes Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah, which generally opposes US policies in the Middle East and Israel.

• Although its power is based in Gaza, Hamas also has supporters throughout the Palestinian territories and has leaders in the Middle East in countries such as Qatar.