Reports Being Checked by Israeli Military on Status of Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar
A graphic image, purportedly showing Sinwar’s body, began circulating on social media on Thursday, but his death has yet to be confirmed.
The Israeli military is checking reports that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza.
Sinwar, 62, was seen by Israel as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion, during which Hamas-led terrorists launched a massacre in Israeli territory, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
He took over Hamas after the previous leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in July in a targeted explosion at a guest house in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday in a post on X: “During IDF operations in Gaza, 3 terrorists were eliminated. The IDF and ISA are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed.
“In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”
A graphic image purportedly showing Sinwar’s dead body circulated on social media on Thursday amid reports he died in an Israeli “military operation” in Gaza.
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The IDF is conducting DNA tests on the body believed to be that of Sinwar.
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, posted on X a verse from the Old Testament: “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.”
Sinwar is believed to have been living in the network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip, along with Hamas fighters who continue to resist the Israeli forces.
Hamas spent more than a decade building an extensive labyrinth of tunnels.
In December 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X, “It is only a matter of time until we find him.”
Sinwar had been the terrorist group’s top official in Gaza since 2017, but Haniyeh had remained his superior until July 2024.
Born in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Sinwar joined Hamas in the late 1980s, rising to prominence as the founder of the group’s intelligence arm, known as the Majd.
In 1989, Sinwar was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for abducting and murdering two Israeli soldiers.
He remained in an Israeli prison until 2021, when Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas and held in Gaza for five years.
Since his release from prison, Sinwar has participated in numerous attacks against Israel, including the so-called 11-Day War in May 2021, during which Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group fired rockets at Israel and drew retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of State designated Sinwar a global terrorist. The designation means that it is illegal for U.S. citizens to provide him with any financial or material help and that any assets he may have in the United States must be frozen.
In February, the Israeli military released a video purportedly showing Sinwar traveling through a tunnel beneath Khan Younis on Oct. 10 alongside several family members.
“The hunt for Sinwar will not stop until we catch him, dead or alive,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press conference upon releasing the footage, noting that the video was taken from a surveillance camera inside the tunnel, where soldiers have been pursuing Sinwar since they surrounded his home in December.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
