The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar – seen as the mastermind of the 7 October attack – has been killed in Gaza, Israel has said.
Foreign minister Israel Katz said of his nation’s most wanted man: “Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by [Israeli] soldiers”. The killing represents a major boost to the Israeli military and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.
Sinwar is thought to have engineered the attack along with Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an airstrike on Gaza in July. The same month, Hamas’s political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, was assassinated in a strike in Iran.
The 7 October attack killed around 1,200 Israelis, while another 251 people were taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory war inside Gaza from land and air has killed 42,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.
Israel’s Kan Radio reported that Sinwar had been killed “by chance”. The station also said his body and those of two other Hamas members were found with money and fake IDs.
Channel 12 reported that the incident in question took place on Wednesday in the southern city of Rafah. Troops who spotted several fighters entering a building ordered a tank strike against it, which collapsed the structure. Graphic photos and video from the scene, broadcast on Israeli media, showed what appeared to be Sinwar’s body, with a head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building.
The Israeli military said it has been operating in southern Gaza following intelligence “that indicated the suspected locations of senior members of Hamas”. Soldiers from the 828th Brigade operating in the area “identified and eliminated three terrorists”, it said, adding an identification process confirmed one of those killed was Sinwar.
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