Yahya Sinwar: Hamas leader and October 7 mastermind killed in Gaza, Israel says

The Israeli military has confirmed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the 7 October attack on Israel last year, has been killed during an operation in southern Gaza.

In a statement, the spokesperson said the leader was killed by a southern command military operation in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night. Verification of his body had been ongoing since then.

The death of Yahya Sinwar represents a major boost to the Israeli military and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah in recent months.

Israel’s Army Radio said the incident occurred during a ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.

Sinwar was the chief architect of last October’s attack on Israel, which killed nearly 1,200 people and led to 251 more being taken hostage, and triggered the war inside Gaza. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since.

Sinwar had thus far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.