Israel previously announced that the military killed three Hamas gunmen in a military operation early Thursday, and suspicions arose afterward that one of them is a Hamas leader.
Minna Pärssinen,
Tomi Pyy
19:56•Updated 20:10
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that the leader of the extremist organization Hamas Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
– This is a great military and moral achievement for Israel and a victory for the entire free world, said Katz in a message sent to his foreign officials According to the Times of Israel.
Sinwari’s death is also confirmed by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet intelligence service.
Israel’s military, police and Shin Bet previously announced that the military killed three Hamas gunmen in a military operation early Thursday, with suspicions that one of them is a Hamas leader.
Israeli forces reportedly spotted several Hamas fighters entering a building in the Gaza Strip. After this, it was decided to destroy the building. Sinwari’s body was later found in the rubble of the collapsed building.
News channel According to CNN sources Israel has confirmed to the United States that, according to preliminary DNA testing, Sinwar is dead.
According to the Israeli channel Channel 12, the police would have succeeded in identifying Sinwar based on dental photographs. The channel bases its information on a document it publishes, received from the police.
Hamas has not officially commented on Sinwar’s death.
Who is – or was – Yahya Sinwar?
Israel would be very pleased if Sinwar had been killed. Sinwar has been living in hiding in Gaza and has been searched for in vain throughout the year-long ground offensive.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant quoted the third book of Moses in the message service X and said that “our enemies cannot hide. We will hunt and eliminate them”
According to Israel, Sinwar is one of the planners of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas.
Sinwar was born in 1962 in Gaza, Khan Younis. He joined Hamas shortly after the organization was founded in 1987. He rose to become the organization’s head of security and was responsible for exposing spies recruited by Israel. When Israel arrested him in 1988, he confessed to killing 12 suspected Israeli henchmen. Sinwar was nicknamed the “Butcher of Khan Younis” and was sentenced to four life terms for four murders.
However, the captivity ended already in 2011, when Israel exchanged more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners for Hamas to kidnap an Israeli soldier to Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar returned to Gaza and, bolstered by his ruthless reputation, quickly rose within the Hamas organization. He is believed to have been responsible for the 2016 killing of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtewin of murder.
Sinwar became the head of Hamas in Gaza in 2017. He is believed to have planned the head of Hamas’s military wing, by Mohammed Deif with the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year. The attack killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
When Israel killed the leader of Hamas in a surprise attack on July 31 to Ismail Haniyeh In Tehran, Sinwar rose to head the organization.
There is no information about Sinwar’s possible successor. It is also not clear how Sinwar’s death will affect efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. Israeli Interviewed by Haaretz magazine experts are cautiously hopeful that Hamas might now be inclined to release the hostages.
Sources: AFP, AP
The story was updated on 17.10. at 19:57 with the latest information.