The Israeli military has announced that the bodyguard of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was killed by its forces in southern Gaza, close to where the group’s leader was killed two days earlier, AFP reports.

“Today (Friday), Mahmoud Hamdan was eliminated by the IDF (military) during an encounter with IDF troops, approximately 200 metres from the spot where Sinwar was eliminated,” the military said in a statement.

It said that Hamdan was responsible for guarding Sinwar and was also the commander of Hamas’s Tal al-Sultan Battalion.