Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar killed by IDF troops in Gaza
IDF confirms terror chief was shot dead in Rafah firefight Wednesday; troops spotted body Thursday and Sinwar’s identity was formally confirmed after tests; no hostages at location
Israel on Thursday night announced that IDF troops had killed Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
Sinwar, architect of the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, was killed in a firefight in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said.
He was not being directly targeted, and troops only realized that one of the three terrorists killed in the incident was apparently Sinwar when they inspected the scene on Thursday morning.
Confirmation that the body was indeed Sinwar was finalized on the basis of DNA and other testing. Part of Sinwar’s finger was removed for expedited testing as the location was booby-trapped. His body was extracted and brought to Israel later Thursday.
In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said Israel’s military activities gradually constricted Sinwar’s area of operations, ultimately leading to his death.
The statement said that over the past few weeks, the 162nd Division and Gaza Division operated in Gaza in areas where intelligence indicated senior Hamas officials were hiding. A force from the 828th Bislamach Brigade killed Sinwar and the other two terrorists, it said.
After the three terrorists were spotted, fired at and injured, two headed into one building and the third, who turned out to be Sinwar, went into another, the military said. The other two terrorists were apparently bodyguards of Sinwar’s and had been moving in front of him, clearing his way.
IDF tanks and other forces opened fire on both buildings.
Sinwar then went up to the second floor. A tank fired another shell at the building, and an infantry platoon moved up to search. Sinwar threw two grenades, one of which exploded. The soldiers withdrew, and a drone flew in to search the room. It found a man with his arm injured and his face covered — Sinwar — who threw a wooden stick at the drone. Another tank shell was fired at the man, killing him.
On Thursday morning, troops searching the building looked at the face of the slain terrorist whom the drone had spotted, and noticed that he resembled Sinwar. The Shin Bet took DNA and part of his finger to verify his identity. No hostages were with Sinwar at the time.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirmed in a Thursday night press conference that the military “identified him as a terrorist in a building” and did not know it was Sinwar. “We fired on the building and went in to search. We found him with a flak jacket and a gun and NIS 40,000.”
Sinwar had apparently been moving around in the tunnels in the area for some time, Hagari said. He was probably attempting “to escape to the north, to safer areas” as the IDF closed in.
“He was fleeing from house to house, we identified him as a terrorist, we closed in professionally and eliminated him.”
Hagari said that Israel was actively searching for Muhammad Sinwar, brother of the slain Hamas leader, and all Hamas military commanders.
The IDF on Thursday night published drone footage of the injured Sinwar’s final moments.
Drone Footage showing the Leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar armed with a Stick and hiding behind several Chairs on the Second Floor of a Building, right before his Elimination. pic.twitter.com/a3tOcfFXWV
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 17, 2024
As he was wearing a head covering during the firefight, his identity only became clear after he was killed.
The army noted that there were no hostages present in the area where the three terrorists were killed.
Photos circulating on social media (Warning, link contains graphic images) showed Sinwar’s body.
“The IDF and Shin Bet forces operating in the area continue to operate under the necessary caution,” the army said in an initial statement on Thursday afternoon.
“At this time, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the IDF said in that statement, issued after rumors relating to the incident began spreading widely online.
Rafah location said near place where six hostages were murdered
According to an unsourced report on Channel 12, Sinwar had previously been hiding with the six hostages who were executed by their Hamas captors on August 29 and whose bodies were recovered by the IDF on August 31 — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.
It said Sinwar likely gave the order to kill the six as he fled.
It said the firefight on Wednesday took place in the same area as the six hostages were held and killed.
It also said that the IDF had checked when the six hostages’ bodies were recovered whether terrorists killed in the area had included Sinwar. This was found not to be the case, but indications, including DNA evidence, were found at the time that Sinwar had been in the area.
IDF Spokesman Hagari confirmed on Thursday night that the IDF was tracking Sinwar for months, and that his DNA had been found in a tunnel a few hundred meters from where Hamas murdered the six hostages in August.
Channel 12 said the body suspected to be that of Sinwar was not immediately brought back to Israel because the area where it was found was heavily booby-trapped. The body also had a military vest carrying grenades.
As the assessment that Israel had killed Sinwar grew, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tweeted, “We will reach every terrorist and eliminate them.”
Quoting the biblical book of Leviticus, Gallant added, “You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.”
The defense minister attached photos of former Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with Xs over them along with a third photo that is blacked out, but also had an X through it.
“You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.” – Leviticus 26
Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them. pic.twitter.com/FDJ7obPIM7
— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) October 17, 2024
Hours later, he released an updated version of the graphic that included a photo of Sinwar in the middle with an X across it. “Another mission accomplished,” Gallant wrote.
Another mission accomplished. ✅ pic.twitter.com/4QxO52fiAB
— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) October 17, 2024
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the killing of Sinwar, and US officials were in close contact with Israeli officials, according to a senior administration official.
Architect of October 7
The leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, Sinwar was the architect of the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza. Ninety-seven of the hostages are still held captive in Gaza.
The terror chief became leader of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran blast in July, when he was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails.
Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, Sinwar joined Hamas when Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the group around the time the first Palestinian intifada began in 1987.
Sinwar set up the group’s internal security apparatus the following year and went on to head an intelligence unit dedicated to flushing out and mercilessly punishing — sometimes killing — Palestinians accused of providing information to Israel.
According to a transcript of an interrogation with security officials published in Israeli media, Sinwar — the “butcher of Khan Younis” — professed to have strangled an alleged collaborator with a keffiyeh in a cemetery in that city.
A graduate of the Islamic University in Gaza, he learned perfect Hebrew during his 23 years in Israeli jails.
He was serving four life terms for the killing of two Israeli soldiers, as well as four Palestinians he suspected of cooperating with Israel, when he became the most senior of 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners released in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
He had received life-saving brain surgery while he was a prisoner, as recounted by the dentist who identified the tumor in a New York Times article in May. That same dentist’s nephew was killed on October 7.
Sinwar reportedly recently renewed contact with mediators for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal after weeks of silence that had stirred speculation he might have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
In February, the IDF released footage of what it said was Sinwar walking through a Gaza tunnel with several of his family members.
“The hunt for Sinwar will not stop until we catch him, dead or alive,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagaeri said in a press conference upon releasing the footage.
Terror command center strike
Earlier, in an apparently separate incident, the military said it carried out a precision airstrike against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists operating a command and control room from a building formerly used as a school in northern Gaza.
The IDF named 12 terrorists who were present at the Abu Hassan School, adding that they were involved in launching rockets at Israel and attacks on troops.
The military said it took steps to limit harm to uninvolved citizens in the strike.
At least 19 Palestinians including children were killed in the strike, an official from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry told Reuters. The terror group’s figures could not be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: “There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing.”
כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף לפני זמן קצר, באופן ממוקד ומדויק ובהכוונה מודיעינית של אמ״ן, שב״כ ופיקוד הדרום, נקודות ריכוז של מחבלים רבים מארגוני הטרור חמאס וגא״פ שפעלו במתחם פיקוד ושליטה שהוקם ברחבה ששימשה בעבר כרחבת בית הספר ״אבו חסן״ בצפון רצועת עזה>> pic.twitter.com/MuTn0bc29g
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 17, 2024
Separately, the IDF said troops found a chalkboard with statements written by terrorists praising the October 7 massacre in a classroom during its ground incursion in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya.
Troops in the 401st Brigade have eliminated dozens of terrorists through airstrikes and close-quarters urban combat since the incursion began earlier this month, the military said, releasing footage of the strikes.
In the raid of the school, troops found dozens of weapons, explosives, mortars, and ammunition.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel said it had killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
