Israeli Foreign Minister Confirms Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar Killed in Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the main architects of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the army said Thursday. The troops appeared to have unknowingly encountered him during a battle, only to discover that his body in the rubble was Israel’s most wanted man.

Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an attack that stunned the country. They also presented it as a turning point in the campaign to destroy Hamas, urging its fighters to surrender and free the 100 or so hostages still in Gaza.

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the beginning of the post-Hamas era,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. officials have expressed hope for a ceasefire without Sinwar. But its elimination may not end the devastating war, in which Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the Gaza Strip.

His death is a big blow for the group. But Hamas has shown resilience in the face of past leadership losses. Hamas did not immediately confirm Sinwar’s death.

Netanyahu said Israel would continue fighting until the hostages were freed, and that it would maintain control of Gaza long enough to ensure Hamas does not rearm – an effective occupation that raises the possibility of months, even years of continuous fighting.

Earlier this month, Israel opened a new front in its war with Hezbollah, stepping up bombing in Lebanon and launching a ground campaign against the Iranian-backed militia after a year of cross-border fire.

In his speech on Sinwar’s death, Netanyahu said: “Our war is not over yet. »

President Joe Biden called Sinwar’s death “a good day for Israel, for the United States and for the world,” and said it paved the way for “a political settlement that offers a better future for Israelis like the Palestinians. He said he would speak with Netanyahu “to discuss the path forward to bring the hostages home to their families and to end this war once and for all.”

Sinwar has been Hamas’ top leader in the Gaza Strip for years, closely linked to its military wing while significantly boosting its capabilities. He was elevated to Hamas’s highest rank in July after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

In recent months, Israel has eliminated a series of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah figures through airstrikes. Israel claimed it killed the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike, but the group said he survived.

But in Sinwar’s case, the troops found him by chance.

An Israeli military official said Sinwar “engaged in combat” with Israeli troops operating in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, and was seen running toward a building. The army hit the building with tank fire.

The military suspected that a number of senior Hamas officials, including Sinwar, were nearby, but Sinwar was not the target of the specific operations that day, the official said, speaking undercover of anonymity in accordance with military information rules.

Visiting the site of the killing, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said that although the army had carried out “many special operations in this war where we had excellent information…Here we don’t we didn’t have and the response was very, very strong.”

Photos circulating online showed the body of a man resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half-buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. The security official confirmed that the photos were taken on site by Israeli security officials. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.

The army said three militants were killed during the operation. Police said one of them was confirmed to be Sinwar through dental records, fingerprints and DNA testing. Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel from the late 1980s until 2011, and during that time he underwent treatment for brain cancer – leaving Israeli authorities with an extensive medical file.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed Hamas fighters, saying “it is time to come out, free the hostages, raise your hands and surrender.”

Netanyahu said Israel had “settled its score” with the man behind the October 7 attack, and that “evil had suffered a severe blow.” But he added: “the task before us is not yet finished.”

He said anyone from Hamas who surrendered their weapons and helped return the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely. Around a hundred captives are still in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to have died.

Hundreds of people demonstrated Thursday evening in Tel Aviv for the release of the hostages after the announcement of Sinwar’s death. Some carried placards reading “End Sinwar, end the war”.

Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin, Ofer Kalderon, is being held hostage in Gaza, said he was happy that Sinwar was dead but “scared for the 101 hostages…. They might murder them or do something because of Sinwar’s murder.

In the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, a Palestinian woman displaced from her home in the north said she hoped Sinwar’s death would bring an end to the Israeli campaign. “What other goals do they have than that?” Enough. We want to go back,” said the woman, Umm Mohammed.

Some have hailed Sinwar as a symbol of resistance against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank. Ahmed Hamdouna, who also fled his home in northern Gaza, said Hamas would be able to replace him. “After the leader, a thousand leaders will come. After this man, a thousand men will come,” he said.

For over a week. Israeli forces are waging a ground campaign in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying they are fighting Hamas fighters who have regrouped there again.

On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabaliya, killing at least 28 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Fares Abu Hamza, head of Gaza’s Health Ministry emergency unit in the north, said the dead included a woman and four children.

The Israeli military said it targeted a command center run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside the school. He provided a list of a dozen names of people he identified as activists and who were present when the strike was called. It was not immediately possible to verify these names.

Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools housing displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes against militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children.

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Sami Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writers Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

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