AFP : Israel claimed on Thursday that its forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza operation, dealing a massive blow to the group it has been fighting since October 7, 2023.
“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a post on X.
The military said that “after a year-long pursuit”, soldiers “eliminated Yahya Sinwar … in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
“The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7th, was eliminated today by IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement sent to media.
Israel earlier said it was checking whether it had successfully “eliminated” Sinwar in a Gaza operation, in what constitutes a massive blow against the group it has been fighting since last year’s October 7 attack.
Israel accused Sinwar of masterminding the attack and was hunting him down since the start of the Gaza conflict. Israel’s raging military offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, including women and children.
Sinwar became the group’s new leader after the killing of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in July.
Hamas and Iran blame Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, but Israel has not commented on it.
Israel’s announcement on Sinwar comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in Lebanon, where its military has been waging an offensive since late September. A slew of other Iran-backed commanders have also been killed in recent months.
With Hamas hugely weakened more than a year into the Gaza conflict, Sinwar’s death deals a major blow to the organisation.
In a brief statement, the military earlier said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated”.
Israeli defence agencies “are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed”, the statement added.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel would hunt down “every terrorist” after the military made its announcement. “We will reach every terrorist and eliminate them,” Gallant wrote on social media platform X.
