Israel has officially announced that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, has been killed in a military operation on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday they were “investigating” whether Sinwar was among the Palestinian militants killed in a skirmish at an unspecified location.
“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the IDF posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday evening.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz has also sent out a note to several of his colleagues around the world confirming the death Sinwar, according to an official statement from the ministry in Givat Ram.
Sinwar, 62, has been the Hamas political leader in Gaza since early 2017. He assumed full leadership of the group in August, after the Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
Alongside Mohammed Deif, the chief of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Sinwar has been widely regarded as the mastermind behind the surprise October 7 attack on southern Israel in 2023 that…