Israel has said it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an operation in southern Gaza on Thursday.
Israel’s military said it had killed Sinwar, who is seen as the architect of the 7 October attack in Israel, in Gaza. In a statement, the IDF said: “After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.”
The statement came shortly after the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said Sinwar had been killed. “Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described Sinwar’s death as “the beginning of the end” but warned the “task before us is not yet complete”. In a press conference, Netanyahu said Israel will continue to work until the end of the war. To the people of Israel, Netanyahu said that there are “a lot of challenges still facing us” and that “we have to remain resilient” and “stand firm on our ground and to continue to fight”.
Hamas sources told Reuters that indications suggest Sinwar was killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza. There has been no public response from Hamas at the time of writing.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has commended the Israeli military, the Shin Bet intelligence agency, and the security services for the killing of Sinwar. In a post to X, Herzog described Sinwar as the “mastermind” behind the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel and for being “responsible for heinous acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians” for years. He added: “His evil endeavors were dedicated to terror, bloodshed, and destabilizing the Middle East.”
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that no hostages were believed to have been present at the site of the killing in the Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “three terrorists were eliminated”. Some in the defence establishment had believed that Sinwar was likely to have surrounded himself with human shields as he sought to evade Israeli troops.
US president Joe Biden was briefed aboard Air Force One while heading to Germany. Biden, on his way to Berlin for talks with European leaders, was being kept abreast of developments on board the presidential plane, the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has recently spoken with his US counterpart, defence secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a US official. The call came moments after Katz announced Sinwar was dead, the official said. According to CNN, Austin was passed a note about Sinwar’s death during a Nato meeting in Brussels earlier today.
Israel’s Kan Radio reported that the Hamas leader was killed “by chance”, and not as a result of intelligence gathering. The station also said the bodies found at the site were found with large amounts of cash and fake IDs.
Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes about security issues, has urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself, reported Reuters.
