Yahya Sinwar EliminatedGALLANT: 'WE WILL REACH EVERY TERRORIST AND ELIMINATE THEM'

Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar killed by IDF troops in Gaza

IDF confirms terror chief was shot dead in Rafah firefight Wednesday; troops spotted body Thursday and Sinwar’s identity was formally confirmed after tests; no hostages at location

Senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, speaks during a conference in Gaza City, on November 4, 2019 (The Times of Israel: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, speaks during a conference in Gaza City, on November 4, 2019 (The Times of Israel: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) Israel on Thursday night announced that IDF troops had killed Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.

Sinwar, architect of the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, was shot dead along with two other terrorists in a firefight in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency announced.

He was not being directly targeted, and troops only realized that one of the three dead terrorists was apparently Sinwar when they inspected the scene of the firefight on Thursday morning.

Confirmation that the body was indeed Sinwar was finalized on the basis of DNA and other testing. Part of Sinwar’s finger was removed for expedited testing as the location was booby-trapped. His body was extracted and brought to Israel later Thursday.

In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said Israel’s military activities gradually constricted Sinwar’s area of operations, ultimately leading to his death.

The statement said that over the past few weeks, the 162nd Division and Gaza Division operated in Gaza in areas where intelligence indicated senior Hamas officials were hiding. A force from the 828th Bislamach Brigade killed Sinwar and the other two terrorists, it said.

Hamas sources told Reuters indications from Gaza suggested the terror group’s leader had been killed.

IDF troops stand over the body believed to be Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on October 17, 2024. (The Times of Israel: Courtesy)

The three terrorists were killed when troops opened fire on a group of combatants on the ground floor of a Gaza building in an incident that began on Wednesday.

A strike was ordered against the building, which partially collapsed the structure. When the soldiers subsequently entered the building on Thursday, they realized that one of the dead terrorists “looked very much like” Sinwar.

IDF troops were not targeting Sinwar and did not know he might be in the specific location where they were operating.

IDF soldiers carry the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar from the building where he was killed in Rafah, Gaza on October 17, 2024. (The Times of Israel: Courtesy)

The army noted that there were no hostages present in the area where the three terrorists were killed.

“The IDF and Shin Bet forces operating in the area continue to operate under the necessary caution,” the army said in an initial statement on Thursday afternoon.

“At this time, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the IDF said in that statement, issued after rumors relating to the incident began spreading widely online.

Photos circulating on social media (Warning, link contains graphic images) showed a body that resembled Sinwar.

Rafah location said near place where six hostages were murdered

According to an unsourced report on Channel 12, Sinwar had previously been hiding with the six hostages who were executed by their Hamas captors in August and whose bodies were recovered by the IDF on August 31 — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.

It said Sinwar likely gave the order to kill the six as he fled.

This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)

It said the firefight on Wednesday took place in the same area as the six hostages were held and killed.

It also said that the IDF had checked when the six hostages’ bodies were recovered whether terrorists killed in the area had included Sinwar. This was found not to be the case, but indications were found at the time that Sinwar had been in the area.

Channel 12 said the body suspected to be that of Sinwar was not immediately brought back to Israel because the area where it was found was heavily booby-trapped. The body also had a military vest carrying grenades.

Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar speaks during a press conference in Gaza City on 30 May 2019 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

As the assessment that Israel had killed Sinwar grew, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted, “We will reach every terrorist and eliminate them.”

Quoting the biblical book of Leviticus, Gallant added, “You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.”

The defense minister attached photos of former Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with Xs over them along with a third photo that is blacked out, but also had an X through it.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the apparent killing of Sinwar, and US officials have been in close contact with Israeli officials in recent hours, according to a senior administration official.

Architect of October 7

The leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, Sinwar was the architect of the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.

The terror chief became leader of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran blast in July, when he was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails.

Head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, left, and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, at a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the terror group, in Gaza City, Dec. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, Sinwar joined Hamas when Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the group around the time the first Palestinian intifada began in 1987.

Sinwar set up the group’s internal security apparatus the following year and went on to head an intelligence unit dedicated to flushing out and mercilessly punishing — sometimes killing — Palestinians accused of providing information to Israel.

According to a transcript of an interrogation with security officials published in Israeli media, Sinwar — the “butcher of Khan Younis” — professed to have strangled an alleged collaborator with a keffiyeh in a cemetery in that city.

A graduate of the Islamic University in Gaza, he learned perfect Hebrew during his 23 years in Israeli jails.

Head of Hamas in Gaza Yahya Sinwar chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022. (The Times of Israel: AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

He was serving four life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers, as well as four Palestinians he suspected of cooperating with Israel, when he became the most senior of 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners released in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

He had received life-saving brain surgery while he was a prisoner, as recounted by the dentist who identified the tumor in a New York Times article in May. That same dentist’s nephew was killed on October 7.

Sinwar reportedly recently renewed contact with mediators for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal after weeks of silence that had stirred speculation he might have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

In February, the IDF released footage of what it said was Sinwar walking through a Gaza tunnel with several of his family members.

“The hunt for Sinwar will not stop until we catch him, dead or alive,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagaeri said in a press conference upon releasing the footage.

Terror command center strike

Earlier, in an apparently separate incident, the military said it carried out a precision airstrike against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists operating a command and control room from a building formerly used as a school in northern Gaza.

The IDF named 12 terrorists who were present at the Abu Hassan School, adding that they were involved in launching rockets at Israel and attacks on troops.

The military said it took steps to limit harm to uninvolved citizens in the strike.

At least 19 Palestinians including children were killed in the strike, an official from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry told Reuters. The terror group’s figures could not be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing.”

Separately, the IDF said troops found a chalkboard with statements written by terrorists praising the October 7 massacre in a classroom during its ground incursion in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya.

Troops in the 401st Brigade have eliminated dozens of terrorists through airstrikes and close-quarters urban combat since the incursion began earlier this month, the military said, releasing footage of the strikes.

In the raid of the school, troops found dozens of weapons, explosives, mortars, and ammunition.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel said it had killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

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