Israel said on Thursday it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of last year’s October 7 attack which triggered the deadliest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sinwar’s death would be a pivotal moment in the year of fighting, delivering a severe blow to the Palestinian militant group and a symbolic victory to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israel Defense Forces said Sinwar had been killed on Wednesday by soldiers from its southern command in the south of the Gaza Strip, without giving further details. Hamas did not immediately confirm Sinwar’s death.
Netanyahu hailed Sinwar’s death as a “victory of good over evil” and “the beginning of the day after Hamas” rule in Gaza, adding that those militants still holding Israeli hostages in the enclave now had an opportunity to release them and be allowed to live.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza . . . The return of our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our goals and it brings the end of the war closer,” he added.
Diplomats have begun discussions with Netanyahu’s government about offering Hamas a two to three-day “pause” in Israel’s military offensive in return for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, a western official said.
The deal would also involve a guarantee regarding the physical safety of Hamas fighters who freed hostages and a resumption of diplomatic talks in Cairo on an end to the war, the official added.
A person familiar with the situation said Israel’s hostage negotiators had been holding emergency discussions on how to “leverage” Sinwar’s killing to secure the release of Israelis held in Gaza.
Killing Sinwar was one of the goals of the devastating assault on Gaza that Israel launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on the Jewish state — during which militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
But for more than a year Sinwar, who was believed to be hiding in Hamas’s vast network of tunnels, remained elusive, even as Israel’s offensive laid waste to Gaza, killing more than 42,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and fuelling a humanitarian catastrophe.
Sinwar took over leadership of Hamas this summer, after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an alleged Israeli explosion in Tehran in July.
The 61-year-old, also known as Abu Ibrahim, is widely considered to have masterminded Hamas’s assault last October, together with Mohammed Deif, chief of the Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing.
Deif, along with much of the top Hamas military leadership in Gaza, has been killed over the past year in Israeli air strikes.
Israeli officials had vowed they would get to Sinwar too, describing him as a “dead man walking”.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday that Sinwar’s death was “a clear message to all of our enemies — the IDF will reach anyone who attempts to harm the citizens of Israel or our security forces, and we will bring you to justice”.
Sinwar, originally from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, had helped build the Qassam Brigades from their inception in the 1980s.
He then spent nearly two decades in Israeli prison but was released in 2011 as part of a swap deal for a seized Israeli soldier.
Once back in Gaza, he rose swiftly through the ranks of Hamas. He became the key interlocutor between the group’s political and military wings and ultimately assumed leadership over the entire territory.
Many people in the pulverised Gaza Strip believe Sinwar started the war with Israel recklessly and some were unmoved on Thursday by news of his death.
“I thought I would feel happy if Sinwar was killed,” said 28-year-old Mohammad Nafiz, who lives in Khan Younis.
Instead, he said “it feels mixed and weird. [Sinwar] started the whole thing. If his death is not leading to an end of the war then there’s nothing to be happy for. He is just another martyr like tens of thousands.”
Cartography by Steven Bernard