Published: 8:08pm, 17 Oct 2024Updated: 4:01am, 18 Oct 2024
Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was the man Israel has hunted for more than a year.
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Sinwar has topped Israel’s most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the militant group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death.
The military confirmed Sinwar’s death after conducting DNA and other tests on a body that it said was among three militants killed Wednesday during operations in Gaza. Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army”, saying it would “create the possibility to immediately release the hostages”.
Sinwar was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel has vowed to kill him since the beginning of its retaliatory campaign in Gaza. He has been Hamas’ top leader inside the Gaza Strip for years, closely connected to its military wing while dramatically building up its capabilities.
An Israeli security official said it appeared that the man who turned out to be Sinwar was killed in a battle, not in a planned targeted air strike.
Photos circulating online showed the body of a man resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building.