WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Yahya Sinwar had been trying to escape the group’s tunnel system to move to safer location when he was killed in the southern Gaza Strip during a routine patrol by the IDF
Drone footage of ‘Yahya Sinwar’s last moments’
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was fatally killed in a drone attack after a chance encounter by the Israeli military found him fleeing an underground tunnel.
Sinwar had been trying to escape the group’s tunnel system to move to a safer location when he was killed in the southern Gaza Strip during a routine patrol by the IDF. According to Israeli officials, Sinwar was discovered in the Tal El Sultan area of southern Gaza, where they believed senior members of Hamas were hiding.
The IDF spotted three suspected militants moving between buildings and opened fire before Sinwar escaped and ran into a ruined building. Tank shells and a missile were fired at the building, according to Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
“He tried to escape and our forces eliminated him,” Rear Admiral Hagari said during a televised briefing. Troops discovered Sinwar with a weapon, a flak jacket and $10,731.63 (£8,229). Despite there not being immediate confirmation from Hamas of Sinwar’s death, the IDF confirmed they killed their top target following DNA tests including dental records.
Sinwar joined Hamas in the early 1980s, before taking a leadership role in the group in 2017. He was the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks, that saw Hamas infiltrating Israel’s borders, killing 1,200 people, taking hostages and sparking a devastating year-long battle against Hamas in Gaza.
He is said to have been unrepentant of the October 7 attacks, according to those in contact with him, despite provoking an Israeli invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to his homeland and rained destruction on Hamas’ ally, Hezbollah. In what is now more than a year of retribution for the October 7 attack, relentless Israeli bombing of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel’s military claims to have hit more than 40,000 targets, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites during its bombardment. It is widely believed that Sinwar had been hiding in Hamas’ extensive tunnel network that runs throughout the Gaza Strip, never staying in one place of roo long and avoiding technology to communicate, using messengers instead.
Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on the mission that killed Sinwar. The Pentagon said US forces had no role in the killing. Spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said: “This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved”.
They also discussed “how to use this moment to bring the hostages home and to bring the war to a close with Israel’s security assured and Hamas never again able to control Gaza,” according to a White House summary of the call. However, Netanyahu said Thursday that “our war has not yet ended.”
Besides seeking the release of hostages, Netanyahu has said Israel must keep long-term control over Gaza to ensure Hamas does not rearm — opening the possibility of continued fighting. Biden said he would be sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel in the coming days.
In an earlier statement, the president compared the reaction to Sinwar’s death to the feeling in the U.S. after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September. 11, 2001, attacks. He said the killing of the mastermind of the October. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel “proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”
The inability to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and deliver the return of the hostages has bedevilled negotiators from the start. Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel in the attacks that launched the war and took about 250 hostages. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. The U.S. has been working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar on a cease-fire proposal since the war began a year ago, sending Blinken and other envoys to the Middle East multiple times to try to broker a deal without success.
