Yahya Sinwar, architect of the October 7 massacre and Israel‘s most wanted man, was killed on Wednesday after being hunted by intelligence services and the Israeli Defence Forces for over a year.
Ultimately, his assassination was seemingly by chance, with the group of trainee soldiers responsible for the Hamas chief’s death not knowing his true identity at the time, according to reports.
Israeli officials have said the 61-year-old – who has long been dubbed the Butcher of Khan Younis – was killed after he emerged from the underground tunnel network where he had been hiding.
A unit from the IDF’s 828th Bislamach Brigade was patrolling Tal al-Sultan, an area of Rafah, on Wednesday morning, when it came across a group of three Hamas fighters in the street and engaged them in a firefight.
The terrorists were ‘on the run’ moving from house to house, the IDF said, and became split up.
One of them, since identified as Sinwar, ‘ran alone into one of the buildings’. He went up to the second floor, and troops responded by firing a tank shell in his direction.
IDF soldiers carry Sinwar’s body out of the wrecked building on a stretcher
Israeli soldiers are pictured surrounding a corpse which resembles Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
Sinwar can be seen looking directly at the drone, peaking only through the small gap in the wrapping encasing his face, with his right hand wounded by bullets
Israel accuses Sinwar (pictured) of masterminding the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war
The unit, made up of trainee infantry commanders and reservists, then began to sweep the area, according to Israeli media.
Two grenades were thrown at them, one of which exploded while the other failed to go off, Ynet reports.
The troops decided it was too dangerous to proceed and pulled back, sending in a mini drone to trace the fleeing fighter instead.
Dramatic footage released by the IDF shows the bloodied Sinwar, his face concealed by a scarf, throwing a stick in a final attempt to defend himself against the drone just seconds before he was assassinated.
Two 120mm tank shells slammed into the building, as well as a surface-to-surface Matador missile, according to Israeli reports, with shrapnel scything across the upper floors and killing Sinwar.
Unaware they had taken out Israel’s prime target, the soldiers did not return to the site until Thursday morning, when soldiers from the 450th Infantry Battalion were sent in to get a closer look.
As they inspected the dead, they realised one bore a striking resemblance to the Hamas leader.
Graphic images emerged of his corpse lying on the rubble surrounded by Israeli soldiers, while close ups showed a catastrophic head wound and multiple injuries.
This is the haunting moment visibly bloodied Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was identified as a terrorist by an IDF drone just seconds before he was assassinated by Israeli forces in Gaza
He was found with a weapon, a flak jacket and 40,000 shekels (£8,250).
‘Yahya Sinouar had a lot of cash and fake passports on him, he was ready to flee,’ Israeli army spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafowicz told French outlet CNEWS this morning.
He claimed that the items Sinwar had on him, which allegedly also included a card from UNRWA, the UN aid for Palestinian refugees, ‘may show that he was ready to flee and leave Gaza and his men behind.’
Booby traps around the area meant the corpse had to be left in place, but part of one of his fingers was removed and sent for testing.
Confirmation of his death took several hours, with multiple tests carried out, and his identity eventually confirmed with dental records and fingerprints.
Four hours after it confirmed it was investigating whether the Hamas leader had been killed, the military issued a simple message on social media: ‘Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar.’
Pictures show Israeli troops carrying a body, believed to be Sinwar’s, out of the destroyed building on a stretcher.
Later on Thursday, his body was brought to a laboratory in Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
The initial findings described Sinwar’s physical condition as ‘good even though he had spent a long time in tunnels,’ public broadcaster Kan reported.
Hamas has not made any comment itself, but sources within the group have said that the indications they have seen suggest Sinwar was indeed killed by Israeli troops.
‘The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar’s operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination,’ the Israeli military said in a statement.
Sinwar has been a prime target for Israeli forces since October 7, but Israel has allegedly been hesitant to make an assassination attempt amid reports that he was surrounded by Israeli hostages and was carrying a bag packed with explosives.
It is believed that Sinwar has been moving from place to place without the hostages since the end of August, when six abductees – Carmel Gat, Hirsch Goldberg-Poulin, Alex Lubnov, Almog Sarosi, Uri Danino and the late Aden Yerushalmi – were found dead in a tunnel, according to a new report by N12.
Israeli troops reported no sign of hostages at the location where he was killed.
Israel reported earlier it was carrying out dental and DNA testing to ascertain whether Sinwar was among the victims of the strike.
Israeli police told the BBC that Sinwar’s body was identified through dental records and fingerprints.
Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel for 22 years, meaning they had his genetic information on file.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has remained elusive throughout the year-long war (pictured in 2022)
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, confirmed the Hamas leader’s death in a televised statement last night.
‘Sinwar was responsible for the most brutal attack against Israel in our history when terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, massacred Israelis in their homes, raped our women, burned entire families alive and took over 250 men, women and children, babies, hostage to Gaza.
‘For the past year, Sinwar tried to escape justice. He failed. We said we would find him and bring him to justice, and we did.
‘It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to wage war with Israel while hiding behind civilians in Gaza.’
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed the death of the Hamas leader, adding: ‘Sinwar was responsible for the most brutal attack against Israel in our history’
He added that 101 hostages still remain in captivity in ‘brutal conditions’.
Israel’s foreign minister also confirmed the news on Thursday.
‘Mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, who was responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,’ Israel Katz said in a statement.
He said Sinwar’s death was ‘a great military and moral achievement for Israel’, adding that his death opens the possibility for the ‘immediate release of the hostages’ and change ‘that will lead to a new reality in Gaza’ without Hamas or Iranian ‘control’.
Sinwar was born in Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp in 1962 and joined Hamas soon after its founding in the 1980s.
He dedicated himself to its radical Islamist ideology, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in historic Palestine and opposes Israel’s existence.
Sinwar became the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s new leader after the killing of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh (left) in July
He became the protégé of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’s founder, as a young man, and was first arrested by Israel in 1982 while he was a student at the Islamic University in Gaza.
In prison, he gained a fearsome reputation as a ruthless enforcer, murdering suspected Israeli collaborators, and earned the nickname the Butcher of Khan Younis.
He learned Hebrew during his brutal 22-year sentence, which he was given for masterminding the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians.
He emerged from prison as a street hero in Gaza, and quickly rose to the top of the Hamas ranks.
Hamas has not confirmed its leader’s death. It will have dealt a seismic blow to the organisation, which was already weakened by the assassination of its top military commander in July.
Experts say it the group may bid its time before acknowledging his death, while his body remains with the Israeli military.
His killing so soon after the death of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in July now begs the question of who might succeed him.
