Jerusalem.- Israel has killed the top leader of Hamas and mastermind behind the October 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar, the most wanted man in Israel’s offensive inside the Gaza Strip, confirmed the official Israeli Army radio. “Yahya Sinwar has been eliminated,” the official media outlet reported.
Public television station Kan broadcast a similar message.
Sinwar’s death occurred during clashes between infantry troops and Hamas militants during a routine patrol yesterday afternoon in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Strip, according to Israeli media citing military sources.
A few hours earlier, the Israeli Army had reported that during their military operations in the Strip, they had killed “three terrorists” without specifying when or where. They were verifying whether one of them was Sinwar and confirmed that there were no Israeli hostages in the area.
While Israel awaited the DNA results that would confirm his death, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted an image on his X account with the faces of the killed Hasan Nasrallah and Mohamed Deif, leader of Hezbollah and Hamas’ military chief respectively, crossed out with a black rectangle, raising speculation about Sinwar.
“We invite you to read: Israel launches new bombing on southern Beirut.”
“You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you,” Gallant wrote, quoting Leviticus 26:7.
“Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue them and eliminate them,” he added. Born in a refugee camp in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, Sinwar was elected Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017 after gaining a reputation as a staunch enemy of Israel. On August 6 – following the assassination of the then head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran – he was chosen to take the top position in the Islamist group’s hierarchy.
Sinwar represented the group’s most hardline and belligerent faction and was considered by Israel to be the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli territory, which resulted in around 1,200 deaths and 250 kidnappings. This made him Israel’s most wanted man since then, and he was added to the EU sanctions list.
Sinwar is believed to have meticulously planned the October 7 attacks alongside the head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, Mohamed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli attack in June in Mawasi, southern Gaza.
In the past, Israel has killed several key Hamas leaders, including the group’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was in a wheelchair, in March 2004, and his successor Abdelaziz Rantisi less than a month later. Other notable assassinations include Salah Shehade, the head of the armed wing, in 2002, and Ahmed Jabari in 2012.
