(NewsNation) — Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has been killed, the Israeli military confirmed Thursday.
“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X.
Sinwar — who had been the de facto head of Hamas since Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July — was a U.S.-designated terrorist and had been at the top of Israel’s most-wanted list since the start of the Israel-Hamas war a year ago.
He was one of the chief architects of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw at least 250 others taken hostage.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army,” saying it would “create the possibility to immediately release the hostages,” in a statement shared with The Associated Press.
Hamas had not confirmed Sinwar’s death as of early Thursday afternoon.
Here’s what we know about Sinwar.
Who was Yahya Sinwar?
Sinwar was born in 1962 in a refugee camp in the Gaza town of Khan Younis. He was an early member of Hamas, which was formed in 1987.
Later, he went on to form the group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which became known for sending suicide bombers into Israel and firing rockets from Gaza into Israeli towns.
Sinwar developed a reputation for brutality and earned the nickname “the butcher of Khan Younis” after he admitted to killing 12 suspected collaborators.
In 1988, Sinwar was arrested by Israel for his terrorist activity. He was sentenced to four life terms for abducting and murdering two Israeli soldiers but was later released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
After his release, Sinwar returned to Gaza, where he rose to power. The U.S. State Department designated Sinwar a global terrorist in 2015.
By 2017, Sinwar had been named the new leader of Hamas in Gaza, with The New York Times describing him as a “militant hard-liner.”
“He carries a reputation as a harsh enforcer of loyalty within the group, and as an unstinting enemy of Israel,” the Times wrote.
In May, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Sinwar for his alleged role in the Oct. 7 attack.
According to the AP, Sinwar was killed in Rafah after an Israeli tank launched a shell at a building, causing it to collapse.
Photos of Sinwar published by Israeli media show a man wearing a bulletproof vest, surrounded by grenades, lying in the rubble of a building with a head wound, the AP reported.
The Associated Press and NewsNation’s Robert Sherman contributed to this report.
