The Israeli army confirms the death of the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar

By James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has confirmed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of last year’s October 7 attack on Israel, has been killed in Gaza, and Foreign Minister Israel Katz has described it as “victory for the entire free world”.

There has been no official comment from Hamas, but sources in the group said indications suggested that Sinwar had been killed during an Israeli operation in the Tal El Sultan area of ​​southern Gaza.

The Israeli military confirmed in a post to X that Sinwar was dead.

“The mass murderer Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7, was killed today by IDF soldiers,” Katz said in a written statement from his office.

“This is a great military and moral victory for Israel and a victory for the entire free world against the axis of evil of radical Islam led by Iran.”

His death represents a major boost for Israel’s military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a series of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.

Earlier, Israeli police examined dental and DNA evidence to determine whether Sinwar, Israel’s top target, had been killed.

The military earlier said it was looking into the possibility that Sinwar was among the three militants killed during an operation in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Majd, a Hamas-linked website that usually publishes on security issues, urged Palestinians to wait for information about Sinwar from the group itself and not from Israeli media, which it said was aimed at breaking its spirit .

Israeli media reported that the operation was a routine raid that caught Sinwar by chance. The military said there was no indication that Israeli hostages had been present in the building.

(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean, Sharon Singleton)