Updated October 17, 2024 at 14:14 PM ET
Israel says it killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Israel's most wanted man in Gaza, who it believes was the mastermind behind the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In a statement Thursday from the Israeli military, it said it and Israel's Shin Bin domestic intelligence agency confirmed that on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers "eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip."
Hamas has not commented publicly about the announcement of Sinwar's death.
"Today evil has suffered a heavy blow," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Thursday following the military confirmation, calling it an "important landmark" in the battle against Hamas but saying the fight is not over.
Addressing the families of hostages taken by Hamas a year ago, he said, "We will continue with all our strength until the return home of all your loved ones, who are our loved ones."
The Israeli military said Sinwar had been hiding the past year above and below ground in Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Some analysts suspect he surrounded himself with Israeli hostages to protect himself from assassination attempts.
The Israeli military said earlier there were no signs of Israeli hostages around the building in Gaza where three militants were killed and that troops were operating in the area with “caution.”
Sinwar was the leader of Hamas in Gaza when the Palestinian militant group led a surprise attack on Israel just over a year ago, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.
He was appointed the leader of the entire group after Israel killed his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in an explosion in Tehran in July. The Israeli military also said it had killed the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July. The Israeli military had earlier killed Hamas’ deputy political chief Salah Arouri in a bombing in Beirut in January.
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians and injured more than 99,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Born on Oct. 29, 1962, according to Hamas, Sinwar helped found the group's internal security apparatus in the late 1980s. He earned a nickname among Palestinians: the "butcher of Khan Younis," where he grew up in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sinwar was seen as a hard-liner within Hamas, less likely to reach a cease-fire deal with Israel than other more pragmatic leaders. He was believed to have been directing operations largely from the group’s extensive tunnel network underneath the Gaza Strip, communicating with the outside world by means of handwritten notes delivered by couriers to avoid Israeli airstrikes that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.
In Netanyahu's statement, he also addressed the residents of Gaza: "Sinwar ruined your life. He told you he was a lion, but in reality he was hiding in a dark den — and he was killed when he fled in panic from our soldiers," he said.
"Hamas will no longer rule Gaza," he continued. "This is the beginning of the day after Hamas, and this is an opportunity for you, the residents of Gaza, to finally break free from its tyranny. To the Hamas terrorists I say: Your leaders are fleeing and they will be eliminated."
Copyright 2024 NPR
