.jpg?20241124')
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, has been killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave, Israel said yesterday.
The Israeli military said it had killed Sinwar in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
“After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated,” it said.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, but sources in the group said that indications from Gaza suggested Sinwar had been killed in an Israeli operation.
In Gaza, pounded relentlessly by Israeli forces for a year, residents said they believed the war would continue but they still clung to their hope of self-determination.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death offered the chance of peace in the Middle East but warned that the war in Gaza was not over and Israel would continue until its hostages were returned.
US President Joe Biden said Sinwar’s death marked a moment of relief for Israelis while providing the opportunity for a “day after” in Gaza without the group in power. He said he would speak soon with Netanyahu to discuss bringing home Israeli hostages in Gaza and “ending this war once and for all.”
Sinwar, who was named as Hamas’ overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
Israel’s Army Radio said the killing had occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three fighters and took their bodies.
Sinwar, who was born in 1962, emerged as a street hero in Gaza from a 22-year Israeli jail sentence for masterminding the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians. He then quickly rose to the top of the Hamas ranks. He was dedicated to eradicating Israel.
&uuid=(email))