Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza as he led a group of militants in battle fate of remaining 97 hostages unknown Iranian target list approved
Israel has officially announced that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, has been killed in a military operation on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday they were “investigating” whether Sinwar was among the Palestinian militants killed in a skirmish at an unspecified location.
“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the IDF posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday evening.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz has also sent out a note to several of his colleagues around the world confirming the death Sinwar, according to an official statement from the ministry in Givat Ram.
The IDF, in a statement, said he was killed with a tank round by the “450th battalion” of the “828th (Bislamach)” Brigade of the Southern Command, after clashes in “Rafah”, Southern Gaza yesterday at around ‘4:00’ pm, his body was found and identified today after securing the area.
Sinwar, 62, has been the Hamas political leader in Gaza since early 2017. He assumed full leadership of the group in August, after the Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
Alongside Mohammed Deif, the chief of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Sinwar has been widely regarded as the mastermind behind the surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel in 2023 that triggered the ongoing conflict. Israel claims to have killed Deif in an airstrike earlier this year, although the group has denied his death.
Unverified and extremely graphic images circulating online on Thursday purported to show Sinwar’s body partially buried in debris. The body showed signs of multiple blast traumas, as well as an apparent gunshot wound to the head. According to media reports, the body was taken by the military to a laboratory for DNA testing.
Israel declared war on Hamas last October, after some 1,100 people were killed and roughly 250 kidnapped in the south of the country during a surprise attack from Gaza. Heavy artillery and air strikes, as well as Israeli ground operations, have caused widespread destruction in Gaza in the year since. Some 42,000 people, primarily women and children, have been killed in the Palestinian enclave, according to local health authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly signed off on a list of targets that could be struck in response to Tehran’s missile strikes earlier this month.
On October 1, Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the killings of the heads of Hamas and Hezbollah and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general last month.
Since then, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to deliver a “deadly, pinpoint accurate, and surprising”response to Iran, while Israeli officials have called for devastating strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, including nuclear facilities.
On Thursday, an unnamed Israeli source reportedly told ABC News that Netanyahu had approved the set of targets. However, the source did not provide any specific details on the targets or whether they are strictly related to the Iranian military.
The ABC report also noted that no timeline had yet been decided for the retaliatory strikes.
Israeli Defence Force Southern Command
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that Netanyahu had promised US President Joe Biden that Israel would only strike Iranian military targets in its response. That’s after Biden urged the Israeli leader to refrain from striking Tehran’s oil or nuclear infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Tehran has urged the Jewish state to refrain from taking further disproportionate escalatory steps. On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned UN chief Antonio Guterres that Iran would deliver a “decisive and regretful” response if Israel chose to attack the country in retaliation for the October 1 missile strikes.
In a phone call with the UN secretary-general, Araghchi stated that, while Iran has been making “all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region,” it remains “fully prepared” to respond to any “adventures” by Israel.
He called on Guterres to use the UN’s resources to “stop the crimes and aggressions of the Israeli regime and to send humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Gaza.”
Source ISW/RT/Telegram/X/AFP