Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and Israel’s top target in Gaza, has been killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Israeli Foreign Minister has confirmed that the Hamas chief was one of three terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip today. Early reports indicate that this wasn’t a targeted hit, but that Israeli forces came across Sinwar’s body by chance, after an IDF tank fired at a building in Rafah where ‘suspicious movement’ had been detected on an upper floor. A body resembling Sinwar was then spotted by IDF troops in the rubble.
Sinwar clearly made a critical error
The impact of his death cannot be underestimated. Sinwar has been the leader of Hamas’s political bureau since August 2024, after his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel. There have been previous opportunities to kill Sinwar, but these attempts were abandoned because he was using Israeli hostages as human shields. Today, the IDF confirmed that no hostages were hurt in this attack.
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