More than a year after Hamas\u2019 devastating October 7 attacks on Israel, the country\u2019s military said Thursday it had killed the man it considers to have been the chief architect of that cross-border massacre \u2013 raising questions about the future of the war and of the militant group itself, which has faced blow after blow in recent months. <\/p>\n
The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could pose a rare opportunity to strike a ceasefire, US officials say \u2013 with Israel having killed several other top Hamas commanders including Ismail Haniyeh, the group\u2019s former political leader, as well as leaders of militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. <\/p>\n
Hamas and Hezbollah are both part of an axis of militant groups backed by Iran. <\/p>\n
In a recorded video message Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar\u2019s death marked \u201cthe beginning of the day after Hamas,\u201d but \u201cthe task before us is not yet complete.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hamas is yet to comment on the reports of its leader\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know. <\/p>\n
Since the October 7 attacks, Israel has poured their resources into a fierce manhunt for Sinwar, declaring him as the most-wanted man in Gaza and a \u201cdead man walking.\u201d At one point, an Israeli military spokesperson said their hunt \u201cwill not stop until he is captured, dead or alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
And, US officials believe, the Israeli military got close a few times, at one point even obtaining a video that purportedly showed Sinwar with several family members inside a Gaza tunnel \u2013 but he continued slipping away. The Israeli military previously surrounded Sinwar\u2019s house and carried out an intensive assault on his hometown of Khan Younis, but could not find him. <\/p>\n
That year-long search finally came to an unexpected end on Wednesday in Rafah, southern Gaza. Israeli forces had been in the area during a routine military operation when they came under fire near a building, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n
The troops returned fire with a tank, then flew a drone into the heavily damaged building, according to the Israeli military. The video, shared by the military, shows what seem to be Sinwar\u2019s final moments: he sits alone in a chair, surrounded by dust and rubble, appearing to look directly at the camera. He holds a piece of wood in his hand, and throws it at the drone before the video ends. <\/p>\n
It was only then, and when troops inspected the rubble, that they realized Sinwar was among the bodies, according to the Israeli military. <\/p>\n
Dental records and other biometrics helped Israel identify the Hamas leader, according to a US official and former official familiar with the matter. <\/p>\n
Sinwar had been trying to escape to the north when he was killed, said another Israeli military spokesperson on Thursday. He was found with a gun and more than $10,000 in Israeli shekels, the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
Sinwar had long been a key player in Hamas, joining the militant group in the late 1980s and quickly rising through the ranks. <\/p>\n
He was born in a refugee camp in Gaza, after his family was displaced from the Palestinian village of Al-Majdal \u2013 now part of the Israeli city Ashkelon \u2013 during the Arab-Israeli war. <\/p>\n
As a student, Sinwar became an anti-occupation activist, but he was imprisoned in Israel on several life sentences after being accused of orchestrating murder. He served 23 years before being released as part of a prisoner swap in 2011. <\/p>\n
Sinwar returned to Gaza and quickly established his name in Hamas. He founded the group\u2019s feared international intelligence security branch, the Majd, and was known for employing brutal violence against anyone suspected of collaborating with Israel. <\/p>\n
He was also viewed as a pragmatic political leader by some: in 2017, Hamas elected Sinwar as the political chief of the Politburo, its main decision-making body in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Sinwar was designated a global terrorist by the US Department of State and the European Union in 2015, and was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and France in recent years. <\/p>\n
But he rose to greater prominence after the October 7 attacks as one of Israel\u2019s key targets. Israeli officials have called him the \u201cface of evil\u201d and \u201cthe butcher from Khan Younis.\u201d <\/p>\n
He became one of Hamas\u2019 most senior leaders in August after Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran. Sinwar had not been seen since the October 7 attacks, likely surviving Israel\u2019s siege of Gaza by bunkering in a vast network of underground tunnels. <\/p>\n
Israel has publicly accused Sinwar of being the \u201cmastermind\u201d behind Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack \u2013 though experts say he was likely one of several. <\/p>\n
The attack was the deadliest assault on Israel in its history. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people into Gaza as hostages. <\/p>\n
Sinwar was considered a vital decision-maker and likely the outside world\u2019s main point of contact in Gaza during the intense negotiations over the hostages\u2019 return. <\/p>\n
The talks involved senior figures from Israel, Hamas, the United States, Qatar and Egypt. <\/p>\n
While it\u2019s too soon to say what may happen next or how Hamas may respond, Sinwar\u2019s killing marks the latest blow to the group \u2013 which has seen several top leaders picked off one by one during Israel\u2019s campaign to dismantle Hamas entirely. <\/p>\n
Only a day after Haniyeh\u2019s assassination, Israel confirmed it had killed Hamas\u2019 military chief Mohammed Deif during a previous strike \u2013 another one of the reported masterminds behind October 7. <\/p>\n
With a ceasefire and hostage release deal to pause the war stubbornly stuck for months, senior US officials had clung to the hope that Sinwar might one day be taken out \u2013 opening a pathway to a resolution. With him now gone, officials speculate this could be one of the best chances of bringing the Israel-Hamas war to an end, but are reticent to make any predictions about what that will ultimately mean for the volatile region. <\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on a call Thursday, where \u201cboth leaders agreed that there is an opportunity to advance the release of the hostages and that they would work together to achieve this objective,\u201d the prime minister\u2019s office said in a readout. <\/p>\n
But much remains unknown \u2013 including the fate of Sinwar\u2019s brother. <\/p>\n
If Mohammed survived this week, he will likely continue his brother\u2019s hardline negotiating tactics as Israel seeks to extract its remaining hostages from the Palestinian enclave. But until a clear picture emerges, it will be hard to know the militant group\u2019s next move. <\/p>\n
And another front of the conflict is ramping up across the Israel-Lebanon border, with Hezbollah announcing a \u201cnew and escalating phase\u201d in its war with Israel on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Hezbollah, too, has suffered significant losses in recent months \u2013 from the deadly pager and walkie-talkie attacks that killed dozens and injured thousands, many of them civilians, to the assassinations of several high-ranking commanders including their chief Hassan Nasrallah last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cSinwar has died, but so many of our people have been killed, and there is no excuse now for Netanyahu to continue the war,\u201d said 22-year-old Mumen Khalili. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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