THIS is the astonishing moment Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was captured on camera by the Israeli army before they assassinated him.
The terror kingpin was killed in an airstrike on Gaza yesterday after a year-long hunt, with officials confirming his identity after DNA testing on a body recovered at the site.
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Gruesome images shared online beforehand appeared to show his corpse with a huge head and leg wound buried in rubble at the strike area.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed they had identified a terrorist in the building but did not know it was him until after the hit.
Footage later released by the army – which appears to have been filmed on a drone – shows a hunched over Sinwar inside the destroyed building.
Apparently covered from head to toe in a thick layer of dust, hunched over in a chair, the 62-year-old terrorist mastermind lives out his final moments.
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The video seems to show him trying to lift something and failing, with the side of the house caved in and the rooms covered in rubble.
His right arm appears to be leaning on the arm of the chair, bloodied and possibly without a hand.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “We fired on the building and went in to search.
“We found him with a flak jacket and a gun and NIS 40,000.
“He was fleeing from house to house, we identified him as a terrorist, we closed in professionally and eliminated him.”
Hagari said Sinwar was likely moving around in tunnels around southern Gaza for some time before he died.
The terrorist was likely trying “to escape to the north, to safer areas”, when the army closed in.
After initial speculation over his death foreign minister Israel Katz said on Thursday evening: “Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of 7 October, was killed today by IDF soldiers.”
Katz dubbed Sinwar’s death a “great military and moral achievement for Israel”.
He also said it could mean fresh hope for hostages still being kept in Gaza and a possible “new reality” in the ravaged Strip.
“The elimination of Sinwar creates an opportunity for the immediate release of the hostages and a potential change that could lead to a new reality in Gaza – without Hamas and without Iranian control,” Katz said.
Speaking about Sinwar’s death, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said “evil has been delivered a blow but our task is not complete”.
Netanyahu and top army officials have repeatedly vowed to take out Sinwar since October 7 last year.
The Hamas terror attack on Israeli soil killed over 1,000 people and saw some 250 more kidnapped into Gaza.
It sparked a horrific war in which more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes – according to the UN and other international human rights groups.
Israel recently launched a ground operation in Lebanon too, where Hamas ally Hezbollah is based, with Lebanese officials reporting the number of people killed as more than 2,300.
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