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The Israeli military said it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza.
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Sinwar was the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, and killing him has been a top objective for Israel.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during an operation in Gaza, eliminating the architect of the October 7, 2023 massacre.
The Israeli Defense Forces released a statement confirming that soldiers from its Southern Command killed Sinwar in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
“Sinwar was eliminated after hiding for the past year behind the civilian population of Gaza, both above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
“The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination,” the military added.
Earlier on Thursday, the IDF said it was checking the possibility that it had killed Sinwar along with two other unnamed “terrorists” but could not confirm whether it had done so.
“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area,” the IDF said. “The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”
Sinwar’s death is a significant turning point for Israel and its yearlong war to eradicate Hamas. The Israeli government, with US support, had made it a key objective to kill him following its October 7 attacks, which left 1,200 people dead and triggered the war in Gaza and wider hostilities across the Middle East.
But despite months of intense Israeli air and ground operations that have leveled much of Gaza, Sinwar managed to remain elusive. Israel’s military has used heavy weapons, including 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, to collapse Hamas’ sprawling tunnel network under Gaza, where he was believed to be hiding.
“Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote in a rather opaque post on social media after the IDF first said that it was checking to see whether Sinwar was dead.
The conflict has been at an impasse with Sinwar missing and Hamas, under his authority, rejecting cease-fire talks. In the meantime, Israel’s military opened a northern front with a ground invasion into southern Lebanon in an effort to end the shelling by Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Israel’s devastating Gaza war has left over 40,000 Palestinians dead — most of them civilians, per local assessments. And there are dire warnings that amid the fighting, the humanitarian crisis is worsening.
The 61-year-old Sinwar had been the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017 and the leader of its political wing following the July assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
The killing of Sinwar comes after Israel took out most of Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and amid heightened tensions with Iran, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas.
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