According to the Israeli military, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza

CNN
—

The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel believes was the main architect of the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack that sparked the war in Gaza, was killed in combat.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that Sinwar was killed on Wednesday after a “year-long persecution.”

“In recent weeks, IDF and ISA troops under the command of the Southern Command have been operating in the southern Gaza Strip, pursuing IDF and ISA intelligence that pointed to the suspected locations of senior members of Hamas,” the Israeli military statement said.

“IDF soldiers of the 828th Brigade (Bislach), operating in the area, identified and eliminated three terrorists. After the identification of the body is completed, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar has been eliminated.”

Two Israeli sources familiar with the matter previously told CNN that Israeli forces encountered Sinwar during a routine military operation.

According to the sources, Israeli infantry troops encountered and attacked three militants near a building in Gaza. After the battle ended, the troops found a body resembling Sinwar and alerted the senior commanders.

Israel has also confirmed to U.S. officials that Sinwar is dead, according to initial DNA tests, another person familiar with the matter said.

Dental records, among other biometric data, helped Israel identify Sinwar, a U.S. official and former official familiar with the matter said. The dental confirmation could be completed relatively quickly, the official said. The Israeli government has Sinwar’s biometric data because he spent more than two decades in Israeli custody for murder.

According to Israel Army Radio, which is state-funded and operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli military detected “suspicious movements” on the upper floor of a building and then fired at it with a tank. Later, the radio station said, a drone scanned the attack area and soldiers recognized Sinwar’s face in the rubble.

As the radio station reported, the IDF had previously detected “unusual activity” in the area and therefore decided last week to “intensify scans and not leave the area.”

Hamas has not yet commented on its leader.

Sinwar has long been Israel’s most wanted man in the strip, but he has remained elusive.

Sinwar was the main target of the Israeli operation in Gaza, launched after the October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage. Israel has killed several senior Hamas leaders in its air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 42,000 people and triggering a humanitarian crisis, according to authorities in the Gaza Strip.

Pictures purportedly showing Sinwar’s body are circulating on social media. It shows a man who closely resembles Sinwar lying dead in the rubble of a destroyed building with severe skull injuries.

CNN ran the images through authentication software that showed no signs of image manipulation. Neither the place nor the time of his death can be determined from the statues. CNN has not yet confirmed the identity of the man seen in the photos.

Sinwar has led Hamas since August after the assassination of former leader Ismail Haniyeh.

He had not been seen in public since the Hamas attacks and was believed to be hiding in the vast network of tunnels that snake through the Gaza Strip.

Israel has publicly accused Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind Hamas’ October 7 terror attack against Israel – although experts say he is likely one of several. Mohammed Deif, the Al-Qassam Brigades commander whom Israel reportedly killed in a July attack, and his deputy Marwan Issa were also named as key figures behind the October 7 attack.

A longtime figure in the Palestinian Islamist group, Sinwar was responsible for building Hamas’s military wing before forging important new relationships with regional Arab powers as the group’s civilian and political leader.

He was elected in 2017 as Hamas’s political leader in Gaza to Hamas’s main decision-making body, the Politburo.

Sinwar has been designated a global terrorist by the US State Department since 2015 and was recently sanctioned by the United Kingdom and France.

US officials have speculated that his death could be one of the best chances for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. With a ceasefire and hostage-taking agreement to end the war stubbornly stalled for months, senior Biden administration officials had clung to hope that Sinwar could one day be defeated — and that doing so could open doors that simply wouldn’t otherwise be possible.