Israel checking if Hamas chief Sinwar killed in Gaza

(The head of the political wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022. Israel’s foreign minister has called for ” remove quickly” Yahya Sinwar, who was appointed by Hamas on August 6, 2024 as the militant group’s new political leader to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last week (AFP).

JERUSALEM – Israel said on Thursday it was checking whether it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in an operation in Gaza, in what would be a massive blow to the group it has been fighting since the October 7, 2023 attack. .

Israel accuses Sinwar of directing the attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, and has been pursuing him since the start of the Gaza war.

He became the new leader of the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group after the assassination of its former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in July.

Hamas and Iran blame Israel for the killing of Haniyeh in an attack in Tehran, but Israel has not commented on the matter.

Israel’s announcement about Sinwar comes weeks after it killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive attack in Lebanon, where its army has been waging a war since late September.

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A number of other Iranian-backed militant commanders have also been killed in recent months.

The article continues after this announcement

Israel said earlier this year that it had killed Mohammed Deif, the military chief of Hamas, in a strike, although the Palestinian group has not confirmed this.

Deif was accused of working with Sinwar to plan the October 7 attack.

With Hamas massively weakened more than a year after the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death, if confirmed, would be a seismic blow to the organization.

In a brief statement, the army said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip, three terrorists were eliminated.”

Israeli defense agencies “are checking the possibility that one of the terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the statement added.

An Israeli security official told AFP the army was conducting a DNA test on the body of a militant to confirm it was Sinwar’s.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, said the country would pursue “all terrorists,” following the military’s announcement about Sinwar.

“We will get all the terrorists and take them out,” Gallant wrote to X.

Hamas weakened, not crushed

Israel has been at war with Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an official Israeli count by AFP.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

After the October 7 attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and bring home the 251 hostages taken by the militants in their cross-border attack.

Since then, Israel has expanded the scope of its operations in Lebanon, where Hamas-allied Hezbollah opened a front against Israel by launching low-intensity cross-border attacks that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee his house

Netanyahu has vowed to fight Hezbollah until victory, and Israel launched strikes on Thursday in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where the militant group and its allies rule.

Israel also issued evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

It had earlier hit a Hezbollah target in Syria, according to a war monitor, while Israel’s main ally, the United States, used heavy bombers to hit rebel targets in Yemen.

Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza belong to the “axis of resistance” of groups aligned with Iran.

On October 1, Tehran launched a missile attack on Israel, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate, raising concerns around the world that what is already a multi-front war could turn into in a total regional conflict.

Warning to Iran

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, warned on Thursday that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacked Iranian targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli strike on the Syrian city of Latakia targeted a “weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah”.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strike when contacted by AFP.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, including multiple recent strikes on the Lebanese border aimed at cutting off Hezbollah’s main arms and equipment supply route from Iran to Lebanon .

In the Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the United States carried out several strikes with B-2 bombers on weapons storage facilities, according to the US military and defense department.

The Houthis’ political office said “US aggression will not go unanswered” and vowed to continue the group’s “support and assistance in Gaza and Lebanon.”

The war in Lebanon has left at least 1,373 people dead, according to an AFP count of Lebanese health ministry figures, although the real toll is likely higher.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have clashed near Lebanon’s southern border, where Hezbollah said Thursday it hit four Israeli tanks with guided missiles.

Rescue workers affiliated with the Amal party, an ally of Hezbollah, in the southern city of Qana were digging through the rubble of several buildings destroyed in strikes this week.

“More than 15 buildings have been completely destroyed, total destruction in a neighborhood of Qana,” said Mohammed Nasrallah Ibrahim, one of the rescuers.

Israel has faced criticism for its attacks on Lebanon, including from its main arms supplier, the United States.

Famine in Gaza

In Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where almost the entire population is displaced, two hospitals said Israeli airstrikes on a school housing displaced people killed at least 14 people.

The army reported that it had hit militants.

Some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said on Thursday, warning of the lingering risk of famine.

Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, with an “astounding” unemployment rate of nearly 80 percent, the UN’s International Labor Organization said Thursday.

The impact of the war in Gaza “will be felt for generations to come,” said the ILO’s Ruba Jaradat.